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B RABUDDHA
HARATA or AWAKENED INDIA
A monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order
started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896
ISSN 0032- 6178
9 770032 617002
April 2009
Healthy Aging
Vol. 114, No. 4

P
B rabuddha
harata
or Awakened IndIA
A monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order
started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896
Vol. 114, No. 4
April 2009
Contents
Amrita Kalasha
Editorial Office
Prabuddha Bharata
Advaita Ashrama
PO Mayavati, Via Lohaghat
Dt Champawat · 262 524
Uttarakhand, India
E-mail: prabuddhabharata@gmail.com
pb@advaitaashrama.org
Publication Office
Advaita Ashrama
5 Dehi Entally Road
Kolkata · 700 014
Tel: 91 · 33 · 2264 0898 / 2264 4000
2286 6450 / 2286 6483
E-mail: mail@advaitaashrama.org
Internet Edition at:
www.advaitaashrama.org
Cover: ‘Late Fall’
Photo by Hisashi Matsuzaki
Traditional Wisdom
This Month
Editorial: Death as Sacrifice
Spirituality and Old Age
Swami Amarananda
Facing Old Age
Swami Ananyananda
Aging: The Indian Context
Swami Narasimhananda
A Journey through Life
Dr Dipak Sengupta
Healthy Aging
Dr Bithi Sircar
Japanese Approach to the Elderly
Prof. Tsuyoshi Nara
Worship of God as Mother
in the Indian Tradition
Swami Satyasthananda
Narada Bhakti Sutra
Swami Bhaskareswarananda
Girish and Sri Sarada Devi
Swami Chetanananda
Reviews
Reports
259
260
261
263
270
273
280
285
291
295
299
301
303
305

Traditional Wisdom
Wrút²; std{; ŒtËg JhtrªtctuÆt; > Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached!
Immortal Living
April 2009
Vol. 114, No. 4
l stg;u rb{g;u Jt rJvr´tªttgk fwU;r´tªt cCqJ fUr´t;T >
ystu rlÀg& Nt‡J;tu~gk vwhtKtu l nàg;u nàgbtlu Nhehu >>
The intelligent Self is neither born nor does it die; it has not sprung from
anything, nor has anything sprung from it. Birthless, eternal, undecaying,
and ancient, it is not injured when the body is killed.
(Katha Upanishad, 1.2.18)
yt hCôJubtbb];ôg ˆlwr³bråA‘btlt sh=r³hô;w ;u >
ymwk ; ytgw& vwlht Chtrb hsô;btu btuv dt bt v{ bu²t >>
Take you hold of this share of immortality, that you may reach old age
without mishap. Spirit and life I now impart to you. Do not vanish into
gloom and darkness; do not perish. (Atharva Veda, 8.2.1)
seJ;tk ßgtur;hÇguÊJtoEt ÀJt nhtrb N;Nth=tg >
yJbw½tlT b]ÀgwvtNtlNÂô;k ={tDeg ytgw& v{;hk ;u =Ættrb >>
Come over into the light of the living, I draw you to a life of a hundred
autumns. Freeing you from the bonds of death and malediction, I set
you further on a longer life. (8.2.2)
ºgöcfkU gstbnu mwdÂàÆtk vwr³JÆtolbT >
WJtoh¥fUrbJ càÆtltàb]ÀgtubwoGeg bt~b];t;T >>
The three-eyed Lord we worship, sweet augmenter of prosperity. As a
(ripe) cucumber from its stem, so may we be freed from the bonds of
death; (may we) never be reft of immortality. (Rig Veda, 7.59.12)
v]ÚÔgË;ustu~rljFu mbwÂÀ:;u v½ttÀbfuU gtuddwKu v{J]útu >
l ;ôg htudtu l sht l b]Àgw& v{tË;ôg gtudtÂÉlbgk NhehbT >>
When the fivefold perception of yoga, arising from (concentrating the
mind on) earth, water, fire, air, and space, have appeared to the yogin,
then he has become possessed of a body made of the fire of yoga, and he
will not be touched by disease, old age, or death.
(Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 2.12)
PB April 2009
259

THIS MONTH
If the recent economic boom in developing countries
has been supported by a young population,
aging is going to place a significant socioeconomic
burden on these societies over the coming decades.
Our approach to aging and death greatly influences
individual and collective well-being. The Vedic outlook
on Death as Sacrifice, therefore, has important
lessons for all of us.
Many of the problems of development are rooted
in our alienation from our spiritual selves. This
can have particularly serious repercussions on the
aged. Swami Amarananda, Minister-in-Charge,
Centre Vedantique, Geneva, reappraises some important
questions about Spirituality and Old
Age.
Individuals coping with the problems of aging provide
important insights into approaches and strategies
required to deal successfully with aging. In
Facing Old Age, Swami Ananyananda, one of the
most senior monks of the Ramakrishna Order, tells
us how attitudinal changes, attenuation of egotism
and desires, and an Advaitic outlook can help us
in old age.
Indian society, much like
other developing societies,
has been discarding traditional
lifestyles to meet
current socioeconomic exigencies.
The problems that
this has entailed for the
aged has forced In dians
to rethink the traditional
Indian world view on life,
aging, family, and geriatric care. Swami Narasimhananda,
a monastic member of Advaita Ashrama,
Kolkata, reviews some of these points in Aging:
The Indian Context.
260
A Journey through Life is a record of some personal
reflections of a senior Indian citizen confronting
some of the problems of old age. The author, Dr
Dipak Sengupta, is former Chief General Manager,
Coal India.
Dr Bithi Sircar, senior physiologist and former
Principal, Sri Shikshayatan College, Kolkata,
writes about some of the important biological
changes associated with aging in Healthy Aging.
She also discusses how nutrition, exercise, yoga,
and spirituality are key elements in maintaining
health in old age.
Japan is a true ‘aged society’; its
citizens have the longest average
lifespan in the world. Prof.
Tsuyo shi Nara, emeritus professor
in foreign studies at Tokyo
University and Adviser, Japan-
India Society, provides useful
insights on the elderly in Japan—their
outlook, interests,
and problems—in Japanese Approach
to the Elderly.
Swami Satyasthananda, a monastic member of Belur
Math, concludes his study of the Worship of God
as Mother in the Indian Tradition with an overview
of Mother-worship in the Tantras and a brief
look at some important Mother-worshippers.
In the sixth instalment of Narada Bhakti Sutra,
Swami Bhaskareswarananda, former President,
Ramakrishna Math, Nagpur, discusses the role of
holy company in spiritual life.
In the second instalment of Girish and Sri Sarada
Devi, Swami Chetanananda, Minister-in-Charge,
Vedanta Society of St Louis, records Girish’s reminiscences
of his stay at Jayrambati.
PB April 2009

EDITORIAL
Death as Sacrifice
Antakāya mṛtyave namaḥ
prāṇā apānā iha te ramantām;
Ihāyamastu puruṣaḥ sahāsunā
sūryasya bhāge amṛtasya loke.
Homage to Death, the ender of life. Let your
breath—both inward and outward—rest here. Let
this man be here with his life in the realm of the
Sun, in the world of immortality.
—Atharva Veda, 8.1.1
Ajarāmaravat prājño vidyām-arthaṁ ca cintayet;
Gṛhīta iva keśeṣu mṛtyunā dharmam-ācaret.
The wise should pursue knowledge and wealth as
though they would never have disease or death;
(and) practise dharma as though Death were holding
them by the hair. —Hitopadesha, 1.3
The Atharva Vedic mantra above is recited by
the teacher while touching the student at the
navel during the traditional Vedic sacred thread
ceremony, upanayana. Along with the Hitopadesha
verse, it reminds us how the shadow of death is inextricably
intertwined with every life-affirming activity.
Vedic humans were as acutely aware of disease
and death as we are. But that did not in any way reduce
their zest for life or their serious attempts to
lead long and healthy lives. The Vedic rishi prayed:
May my voice remain strong,
my breath unfaltering,
my sight and my hearing acute.
May my hair not turn grey,
nor my teeth become blackened,
nor my arms grow feeble and slack.
May my thighs remain sturdy,
my legs swift to go,
my feet neither stumble nor flag.
May my limbs remain whole,
each performing its function,
and my soul ever unconquered.
PB April 2009
This prayer was not a mere personal petition, for
the rishis’ invocations extended well beyond their
limited persons. They prayed:
Blessings be to our mother and father,
blessings to cattle, creatures, and men;
May all well-being and beneficence be ours,
long may we see the sun.
Further:
Peace be in the heavens, in the skies, on earth, in
herbs and trees, in all the gods, in Brahman, in all.
So strengthen me that all beings may regard me
with the eye of a friend.
May I regard all beings with the eye of a friend.
With the eye of a friend may we regard one
another.
That the Vedic rishis felt confident their mantras
could bring back humans from the clutches
of death is illustrated in the efforts made by Subandhu’s
brothers to bring him to life after he had been
struck down by the incantations of rival priests:
May your soul, that has gone far to Yama,
son of Vivasvan, return
so that you may again live and dwell here.
May his life be renewed and further extended,
as by two skilled charioteers pursuing their
course. A fall increases one’s desire to live; (as
in the case of Chyavana) may Nirriti, the goddess
of death and destruction move far away.
Rishi Chyavana represents the possibility of rejuvenation.
He had grown old and decrepit performing
tapas when he happened to be assaulted by
King Sharyata’s children. Though the sage did not
protest this evil act, it brought a host of suffering
and misfortune on Sharyata’s people. Sharyata hurried
to Chyavana and offered his daughter Sukanya
in marriage to the sage. Sukanya served Chyavana
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262
Prabuddha Bharata
with great devotion. Once, when the celestial physicians
Ashwini-kumaras asked her to marry them,
she indignantly refused, affirming her fidelity to
her old husband. Now Chyavana had told Sukanya
about the reason for the Ashwini-kumaras’ imperfection—they
had been excluded from partaking
of Soma during a sacrifice conducted by the gods at
Kurukshetra. She persuaded the celestial physicians
to restore Chyavana’s youth in exchange for this
knowledge. The Aswini-kumaras advised Chyavana
to bathe in a certain pond and this restored him to
youth. Ayurvedic rejuvenation therapists still hark
back to Chyavana.
One Chyavana, however, does not make for perpetual
youth in an entire population. The host of
Dirghayu Suktas, supplications for long life, and
the numerous hymns to ward off specific diseases
and disasters found in the Atharva Veda testify to
an awareness of the hazards of living. If the Vedic
humans were able to maintain a joyous outlook on
life, it was because death to them was a mere signpost
on a long journey, and not an insuperable barrier
marking the end of the road.
‘The human being,’ the Shatapatha Brahmana
declares, ‘is in debt to death right from birth. When
he performs sacrifice he purchases himself back from
death.’ Life is a constant fight for survival, most of
which is waged without our conscious participation
by the body’s defence mechanisms. Living also involves
a series of exchanges between our person and
the environment. We depend on external sources
for the food and drink that nourish our body and
furnish us with energy, for the mental and intellectual
stimuli that foster our linguistic, logical, and
emotional skills, as well as the insights that lead us
to the portals of the joys derived from our spiritual
Self. We are also constantly made to give of ourselves
in the cosmic web of life. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
announces: ‘This self (the individual) is an
object of enjoyment to all beings. That he makes oblations
in the fire and performs sacrifices is how he
becomes such an object of enjoyment to the gods.
That he studies the Vedas is how he becomes an
object of enjoyment to the rishis. That he makes offerings
to the manes and desires children is how he
becomes an object of enjoyment to the manes. That
he gives shelter to people as well as food is how he
becomes such an object to them. And that beasts
and birds, and even the ants, feed in his home is how
he becomes an object of enjoyment to these.’
The Vedic rishis made an important discovery
about the nature of this inexorable cycle: ‘Just as
one wishes safety to one’s body, so do all beings wish
safety to him who knows this web as such.’ A conscious
participation in this cosmic sacrifice not only
ensures one’s safety and well-being, it is also a source
of joy. The Chhandogya Upanishad reminds us that
Mahidasa Aitareya, knowing life to be a sacrifice,
lived for a hundred and sixteen years. Krishna was
thus taught by Ghora Angirasa: ‘That a man feels
hunger and thirst, that he does not feel happy—this
is his initiation rite. That he eats, drinks, and feels
happy is the Upasad sacrifice. That he laughs, eats,
and has intercourse is the chanting and recitation in
sacrifice. His austerity, charity, sincerity, non-injury,
and speaking the truth are offerings to the priests
and others. … Death is surely his finishing bath.’
Death, according to this world view, is a natural
change of body; as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
puts it: ‘When this body becomes thin—is emaciated
through old age or disease—then, as a mango,
or a fig, or a fruit of the pipal tree is detached from
its stalk, so does this infinite being, completely detaching
itself from the parts of the body, again go,
in the same way that it came, to particular bodies,
for the unfoldment of its vital force.’
And the cosmos is an active participant in this
exchange: ‘Just as when a king is coming, the guards,
charioteers, and village leaders wait for him with
varieties of food and drink and mansions ready, saying,
“Here he comes, here he comes” so for the person
who knows about the results of his work, all the
elements wait saying, “Here comes Brahman, here
he comes.”’ This person’s funeral is only another
sacrifice, albeit the last in this life, the antyeshti,
which cannot but give the sacrificer the satisfaction
of a life well-lived, and others a sense of reverence
for nature’s ways.
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PB April 2009

Spirituality and Old Age
Swami Amarananda
‘
Since we are destined to live out our lives in
the prison of our minds,’ said Peter Ustinov,
‘our one duty is to furnish it well.’ To furnish
the mind well we need to tap its intellectual, cultural,
and spiritual potential. A totally secular education
with a curriculum shorn of spiritual elements
would be disastrous for any nation; it would give
rise to individuals with sharp minds tending to
busy sophisticated selfishness and conceit as seeming
uprightness. These people, with only a veneer
of external correctness, would break their families
through infidelity, become parents of would-be violent
youths, sow chaos in the body politic in spite
of their grandiose planning, and would likely have
an ignoble end to their lives.
In all ancient civilizations an elderly person was
perceived as a repository of love, wisdom, and spirituality.
The image of the old age resembled that
of the old sage. In India we have this archetype
in Bhishma of the Mahabharata story. The model
has also been immortalized by Cicero in his portrayal
of Cato the Elder.1 But wrinkles on the face
coupled with a wise mind, as in the case of Bhishma
or Cato, do not come into being without an effort
on the part of the individual.
Healthy Old Age Is Built Up in Youth
We begin life on earth as babies, and then continue
through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to
end in old age. Hagiographies of the world show
that spiritual qualities were manifest even in the
childhood of numerous renunciants. In fact, these
qualities are also apparent in the early lives of spiritually
inclined householders, who for some reason
or other have not opted for a God-centred life in a
cloister. Scriptures like the Bhagavadgita affirm that
only the cultivation of yogic qualities, and not the
PB April 2009
outer trappings we associate with holiness, makes
for progress in spiritual life. Parents and teachers,
however, should place before children the lives of
spiritual heroes—their humility, their perseverance
to get to the spiritual verity, their success, and their
loving service to society. The best possibilities of a
person’s reaching a mentally and spiritually healthy
old age exist when he or she is exposed to such spiritual
models from childhood, preferably by the parents.
Adolescents tend to be idealistic; they develop
a sense of fairness in interpersonal relations. They
change over from a self-centred perspective to a
considerate attitude towards others, and from total
acceptance of adult moral judgement to the development
of their own values. The histories of freedom
movements in many countries, or the story of the
Ramakrishna Order, show how deeply adolescents
feel for a noble cause. Hundreds of them endeavoured
to join monasteries of this Order and many
had to be gently dissuaded because they lacked maturity
or were in need of being groomed in higher
centres of learning. Educational systems should attempt
to properly utilize this enthusiasm present
in adolescents, foster their thinking skills, and thus
promote higher levels of ethics and morality.
The ancient Indian way of introducing brahmacharya2
into the educational system is taboo to
many social scientists around the world. But one
need not be deterred by the attitude of caretakers
of education who are against brahmacharya. ‘What
formerly appeared to me to be extravagant praise
of Brahmacharya in our religious books seems now,’
wrote Mahatma Gandhi, ‘with increasing clearness
every day, to be absolutely proper and founded on
experience.’
The fire of idealism has to be tended throughout
late adolescence—roughly between fifteen and
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eighteen years—and during the youth.3 Otherwise,
the puberty-propelled idealism, in most cases,
would wither away.
Spirituality generally blossoms in two ways:
through an inward journey or through an enhanced
desire and ability to serve others, embracing personal
sacrifice if required. Hundreds of adolescents and
adults who blazed upon the history of India’s freedom
movement by their inspiring sacrifice had one
thing in common: a passion for spirituality. Garibaldi,
the maker of unified Italy, was a model hero for the
Indian nationalists of the nineteenth century. His
idealism was triggered at the age of twenty-four, following
a chance meeting with Giovanni Battista
Cuneo in an inn in the seaport city of Taganrog.
When people are about to settle in family life
in late youth or in adulthood, especially in these
days of accelerating competition and job insecurity,
when they are busy in the search for a suitable companion
in conjugal life, the fire of idealism, tended
for so long, is apparently extinguished. But it is not
so; it remains buried like fire under rice-hull ashes
to become manifest in late adulthood. It is not
without reason that law books of the Hindus concurred
that a householder should embrace the third
stage of life and live in a purely spiritual manner
when ‘wrinkles and grey hair appear on his person’.
264
Materialism: Reasons and Reactions
It is useful to understand the broad reasons why
our society has been invaded by what is opposite
to spirituality. The following cascade of events in
recent human history is mainly responsible for increasing
materialistic lifestyles in the present days:
A sustained acceleration of national hyper-greed for
material objects began when Spanish monarchs Ferdinand
and Isabella sponsored Columbus’s expedition
in search of a new sea route to Asia. This was
further accelerated when, two and a half centuries
later, the Industrial Revolution was ushered in. Materialism
got a scientific and philosophical boost
through the works of Darwin and Marx.4 In the
twentieth century, the world wars shook even more
the faith of many Christians in the existence of a
Prabuddha Bharata
good God. Since the 1980s, TV programmes as a
tool of propagation of non-spiritual ideas have been
in vogue and are passively accepted.5 In 1990 Berners-
Lee, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research
(cern), developed the first web browser,
thus helping launch the global Internet. The emergence
of the Internet is coeval with the somersault
of human society from the industrial to the information
revolution. In his book The Future Shock, Alvin
Toffler had already predicted that such a revolution
was imminent. By presenting these details we are not
holding a brief for machine-phobia; we only wish to
emphasize the cultivation of spirituality to combat
the dominance of humanity by machine.
The stress induced by the information revolution
is itself pushing thousands of men and women to
the search for inner stability. Meditation was popularized
a generation back with the trumpet blast of
Transcendental Meditation in the media. In the
US, since the 1960s, many people disenchanted
with Christian theology and also with authoritarian
gurus, have been seeking the realization of what
Aldous Huxley called ‘human potential’. They inaugurated
the New Age movement, with Esalen
Institute in California as its Mecca. The world outside
the New Age movement has, for many wellfounded
reasons, mixed perceptions about it and
the Esalen Institute. But there is little doubt that
they come from the bosom of the American youth,6
in which there is a thirst for spirituality along with
pronounced individualism. The New Age movement
will have impact on the emerging spiritual
culture of Europe and the rest of world as well.
Ana Aslan, the famous gerontologist of Bucharest,
enunciated her Decalogue on Gerontoprophylaxis
in the 1950s. Since then the West has
been doing intensive research to push back old age.
Both scientists and charlatans have joined the fray
to prolong youthfulness. Hundreds of magazines
disseminate every year a gamut of recipes for rejuvenation.
Body cult has become a flourishing commerce
with clients ranging from the youthful to the
superannuated. The all-absorbing attention to push
furrows off one’s face till the ninetieth year and be-
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yond is like a double-edged saw—if this preoccupation
is not attenuated it becomes a contributing
factor to the neglect of one’s spiritual dimension.7
Rights, Dignity, and Difficulty
in Secular Care
There have been a lot of speeches and writings about
the rights of the aged. The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights mentions these rights comprehensively.8
One key word in that declaration is ‘dignity’.
If the word means the quality of being worthy of
respect, then one’s permanent dignity is achieved
through one’s spiritual elevation. Sri Ramakrishna
used to say that humans are worthy of being called so
only if they are conscious of their spiritual dignity.9
Among Hindus the care and social dignity of the
aged used to be assured by the dictates of the Dharmashastras—books
on social and religious laws—corroborated
by examples from the two great epics, the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and other religious
books. The message was engraved in the national
psyche for several millennia. Adult sons who did
not look after their aged parents would invariably
invite social opprobrium. The system worked well
without old age homes and insurance agencies. But
materialism is creeping into India too. And this has
hit old people hard, since public health and social
services of municipal bodies are not yet adequately
developed.10 So laws have become necessary to protect
the aged from neglect and cruelty.11
Many years back in Geneva, I offered myself as
a volunteer for one afternoon to serve hundreds of
aged people. The programme was organized by the
Red Cross; the elderly citizens were escorted from
their homes, if necessary, to a hall where they were
entertained with food and music. When the dinner
was over and the hall almost empty, I went to an
old lady who was still sitting at the table. ‘Do you
need an escort to go back home?’ I asked her. With
tears in her eyes, she replied: ‘I am a widow for the
last thirty-four years. I am alone. It is December.
But I get no Christmas card. There is none to invite
me on the evening of Christmas.’ I assured her:
‘Madam, I cordially welcome you to the Vedanta
PB April 2009
Spirituality and Old Age 17
Centre on Christmas evening.’ Loneliness seems
to be ubiquitous in materially advanced nations;
it is also slowly invading developing countries. It is
quite a suffering for a significant portion of the old
population, especially men.
Since women are more communicative, they talk
about their problems to unburden themselves. Old
men often do not do that, thus increasing their suffering
through excessive brooding on their difficulties
and finally seeking an escape through suicide.12
The widowed, the divorced, the recently bereaved,
the cancer-stricken, the financially crippled, the
solitary, and those who abuse alcohol or drugs are
particularly prone to commit suicide. A European
Union study on parasuicide, based on data collected
from thirteen member states between 1989 and
1993, provided the following facts for the 65 and
over age group: a mean suicide rate of about 30 per
100,000; and a mean parasuicide rate of more than
60 per 100,000.13 The number of old people depressively
carrying the cross of life is many times bigger
than the number of those committing suicide. Still
larger is the number of old people who have lost a
sense of purpose in life, who have fear of death, and
who contemplate death as a solution to their problems—they
are victims of death ideation.14 The UN
estimates that, compared to the 1995 figures, the
ratio of old people to the working group—from 15
to 64 years of age—will double in more developed
nations and triple in less developed ones by 2050.
Social Significance of Spirituality
in the Elderly
The aforementioned facts would impress upon us the
social importance of spiritual awakening in the aged.
Without spiritual training and understanding old
people will find no meaning in existence, no shield
against the silent disdain of the world towards them,
nothing to soothe the spirit ruffled by the several
problems that often accompany old age—discomfort,
disease, bereavement, frustration—no tool to tackle
the memory of trauma or injustice experienced in life,
and above all no assurance beyond their earthly effacement.
The spectre of annihilation is ubiquitous.
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Even a partial spiritual awakening helps a person
accept suffering, including that of a fatal disease, with
a certain degree of calmness. Sometimes a misfortune
can get transmuted on the anvil of spirituality. I have
seen quite a few men and women of adamantine
character, both in Europe and in India, who in spite
of the difficulties of old age bear a beaming countenance.
Recently I met a mother on the threshold of
old age. She was emaciated and knew she would die
in three weeks. She told me: ‘I have no pain or sorrow.
My mind is prayerful.’ I know another lady who
is old and frail. Through sincere prayer and repetition
of God’s name, she has achieved mystical experience
in her old age. With the divine grace showered
on her, she is calmly facing her present ailments. It is
inspiring to come across such human beings!
Dr A Stuckelberger, president of the Swiss Society
of Gerontology, feels keenly the need for making
spiritual opportunities available to the aged.
One problem in talking about spirituality in public
forums is that it means different things to different
religious groups, and only superstition to nonreligious
people. But, as has been demonstrated by
Swami Vivekananda and affirmed by others coming
after him,15 the rich mystical insights of the East can
be dovetailed with the creative intelligence of people
having a Western mindset. It is possible to give all
sections of the population, even atheists, a taste of
spirituality. The result would convince everyone
that this is feasible, provided no formal enunciation
of spirituality or purpose of life is proffered, as such
enunciations are likely to create conflict.
In old age one is free from the burden of earning
one’s bread. But one should not be caught in the
syndrome of frequent golf and bridge games to kill
time. Old people, if they continue to live, will grow
very old. So they should try to grow spiritually as
well, for spirituality is an asset when one crosses
eighty and becomes a very old person (vop).16 At
this age the functional capacity of one’s vital organs
are markedly reduced. vops often suffer from dementia.
The three ‘F’s—fear, phlegm, and flatulence—diminish
their quality of life. Reduction
in outdoor mobility means loss of autonomy. It is
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Prabuddha Bharata
hard for a vop to cope with highway traffic or to
undertake outdoor leisure activities; even ‘activities
of daily living’ like bathing or ‘instrumental activities
of daily living’ like cooking become problematic.
Moreover, one is buffeted at short intervals by
news of friends and relatives dying. Sometimes the
dysthymia of younger days evolves into full-blown
depression. In some cases sons or daughters live far
away. So even with laurels won in youth and with
enough wealth, vops often feel forlorn.
On the other hand, it is necessary to create sufficient
institutions to derive profit from the experience
of aged people. Those elderly who still have a
relatively good health can prove helpful in cautioning
youngsters against pitfalls, passing on essential
values, boosting up the disconsolate, helping as
wonderful baby-sitters, volunteering for non-profit
organizations, protesting actively against excessive
sex and violence on TV or corruption in public life,
and of course sharing their spiritual wisdom. In so
doing they can be useful members of society and
cease to be a burden for the working population.
Spiritual wisdom must of course be first acquired
before it can be disseminated. And the best result is
achieved through a blending of faculties and judicious
use of one’s time: working in the spirit of loving
service, praying, reading with reflection, meditating,
listening to elevating music, and practising concentration.
Swami Vivekananda’s friend Josephine
MacLeod is a famous example of such harmonious
blending of faculties in spiritual pursuit.
Spiritual Food for the Atheist Too
Once a functionary of the Chinese government told
me how, through well-planned reading material,
they try to impress upon Chinese children that the
belief in God is a superstition.17 The number of atheists,
agnostics, and dogma-neutral persons shying
away from organized religions is increasing. Atheists
and agnostics think that God is like a paper pile
that is being flattened by the hammering of science.
Non-dogmatic and spiritual people feel that God is
buried under the debris of untenable doctrines.
In this respect, the case of Antony Flew should
PB April 2009

e an eye-opener for atheists of our time. Flew, the
arch-atheist philosopher of the second half of twentieth
century, changed his opinion in 2003, when
he was eighty.18 His book There is a God: How the
World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
was published in 2007. G Schroeder, the famous nuclear
physicist and author of The Hidden Face of God,
had a role in the change of Flew’s views.19 Schroeder’s
philosophical ideas reflect Vedantic principles.
Many atheists and agnostics, however, sincerely
search for the truth they do not find in religious
dogmas. Some others like Möller de la Rouvière,
author of Spirituality without God, berate, in J
Krishnamurti’s style, all religions and religious
teachers, teachings, traditions, and above all, the
‘Great Other’—God; yet they give easy hints for a
kind of spiritual progress that, though falling short
of any mystical experience, is enough for people who
do not want or cannot digest more than that. There
are valid reasons that give credibility to the Hindu
idea of reincarnation, along with the tendencies and
convictions brought to the fore from previous lives.20
The idea is not limited to the Hindu faith. According
to Buddhism, at the time of death the aggregates—
matter, awareness, feeling, perception, and mental
formations—are resolved into their causal factors
to form a new group of aggregates associated with
punarbhava, coming into existence again. This is
close to the Hindu idea of reincarnation. Jesus himself
and the pre-Justinian Christians believed in reincarnation.21
Many minor Christian denominations
as well as members of Jainism, Sikhism, Hassidic
Judaism, Druzism,22 and Alawite Shias subscribe to
the concept. About one-third of the world population
under the sway of non-aboriginal religions officially
accepts some sort of metempsychosis.
Related to this notion is the Hindu idea of dying
with a spiritual thought. There are rare instances of
persons on the verge of death having a flash of goodness
in their minds, a thought of helping the destitute
rather than craving selfishly for worldly things.23
For vops the hope for spiritual progress is bolstered
by the doctrine of reincarnation and by the corollary
that no sincere attempt in the right direction is lost.
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Spirituality and Old Age 19
Ancient Indian Wisdom and Modern Care
Health, healing, and well-being are influenced positively
through spiritual awakening. The idea of reincarnation
is just one of the several handy tools
available to tackle dysthymia, suicidal ideation, and
passive death wish as well as recurrent major depression
common in old age. Friends and relatives
are normally prepared for the news of a vop’s death.
But a person who is close to death needs the assurance
that the soul of a living being is imperishable
and unchangeable.24 The technique of dying
spiritually has been outlined by Sri Krishna in the
eighth chapter of the Bhagavadita. It may be difficult
to transport Gita’s methods to the context
of Semitic religions, but some of these ideas, presented
in a way that does not touch the sensibility
of non-Hindus, may help improve the situation
in old age.25 The Diocese of Oxford has a project
called Special Care for Older People (scop), which
has the following aims: i) raising awareness about
older people’s issues, concerns, and spiritual needs;
ii) offering ongoing training; iii) working alongside
other agencies; iv) building up good practices in
the spiritual care of older people; v) encouraging
older people to become involved; vi) developing a
library of appropriate resource material.
The European Commission is trying to improve
the information and communication technology
(ict) uptake of the aged. ict is a great aid for combating
isolation in old age. Social service departments
of many important cities in the West have
programmes for vops with reduced mobility—residences,
excursions, meals, spectacles, seniors’ clubs,
and the like—and for welcoming and entertaining
the aged with various kinds of talks, shows, and
other events. The scop project is worthy of emulation
by religious bodies and ngos engaged in the
field of old age care.
Along with banking on traditional wisdom,
India needs to incorporate some of the aforesaid
facilities provided to the aged if her model is to be
appreciated globally. Apart from the reincarnation
theory, India has a cultural-cum-spiritual heritage
which is of paramount significance to the elderly
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20
everywhere.26 In the not-so-distant past, India had
been a role model for the care of the aged in the
family, and this shows that it has the capacity to
start pilot projects covering those subtle subjective
emotional and spiritual needs usually overlooked by
caregivers. Indian government and society should
take a lead in keeping the aged with their kin—or
if this is not possible, with their friends—and yet
supplement the care given to the aged in proportion
to its vast potential and its ancient wisdom: ‘You
(God) are walking with the stick in the form of the
debilitated old person.’ 27
P
Notes and References
1. ‘Those who look for all happiness from within can
never think anything bad which Nature makes
inevitable. In that category before anything else
comes old age, to which all wish to attain, and at
which all grumble when attained. Such is Folly’s
inconsistency and unreasonableness! They say that
it is stealing upon them faster than they expected.
In the first place, who compelled them to hug an
illusion? For in what respect did old age steal upon
manhood faster than manhood upon childhood? In
the next place, in what way would old age have been
less disagreeable to them if they were in their eighthundredth
year than in their eightieth? For their
past, however long, when once it was past, would
have no consolation for a stupid old age. Wherefore,
if it is your wont to admire my wisdom—and I
would that it were worthy of your good opinion and
of my own surname of Sapiens—it really consists
in the fact that I follow Nature, the best of guides,
as I would a god, and am loyal to her commands. It
is not likely, if she has written the rest of the play
well, that she has been careless about the last act
like some idle poet. But after all some “last” was inevitable,
just as to the berries of a tree and the fruits
of the earth there comes in the fullness of time a
period of decay and fall. A wise man will not make
a grievance of this. To rebel against Nature—is not
that to fight like the giants with the gods?’ Cicero:
On Old Age, trans. E S Shuckburgh.
2. Brahmacharya is celibacy in a narrow sense only. It
is much more than that; it is a movement towards
the ultimate Truth or Brahman. In ancient India
students strictly observed celibacy. In married life
sex was not conceived as an indulgence, but as a
means of procreation. Celibacy for the married
person meant restraint from sexual indulgence and
Prabuddha Bharata
from infidelity to the partner. In the third stage of
life, the married gradually came back to a life of
celibacy and simplicity. And finally, in the fourth
stage, the individual strove to go beyond all desires
and egocentricity, sublimating the sexual energy,
and thus became totally occupied in the search for
the ultimate Truth.
3. Youth is defined by the UN as the period between
fifteen and twenty-four years of age. Girls normally
attain maturity about two years ahead of boys.
4. Darwin’s theory of evolution contradicted the biblical
theory of humankind conceived as descendant
of Adam and Eve. The slogans ‘struggle for
existence’ and ‘survival of the fittest’, derived from
his theory, were employed to justify colonial exploitation.
Darwin’s eminence drove many people
from Christianity to agnosticism and softened the
qualms of their conscience in accepting the subjugation
of millions under the boots of colonialists.
Marx wrote: ‘Religious distress is at the same
time the expression of real distress and the protest
against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the
oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world,
just as it is a spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the
opium of the people.’
5. ‘Sex, nudity, violence, and vulgar language have
become regular ingredients of the dramas, documentaries,
and reality TV staples that make up the
British TV diet. Scenes that would have provoked
a furor 15 years ago now rarely cause a fuss.’ Christian
Science Monitor, 5 September 2003.
6. Both Michael Murphy and Dick Price were in their
early thirties when they founded the Esalen Institute.
7. In reply to a query from a disciple about practising
hatha yoga postures, Sri Sarada Devi said, ‘If you
practise them too much, your mind may become
attached to the body, but if you give them up, you
stand the risk of falling sick. Keeping this in mind,
act accordingly.’
8. ‘Everyone is entitled to all … rights and freedoms
… Everyone, as a member of society, has the right
to social security and is entitled to realization …
of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable
for his dignity and the free development
of his personality. … Everyone has the right to a
standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and of his family, including
food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary
social services, and the right to security in
the event of unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in
circumstances beyond his control.’ General Assem-
268
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Spirituality and Old Age 21
bly of the United Nations, Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, articles 2, 22, 25.
9. Sri Ramakrishna liked to play on the word manush,
the Bengali term for ‘man’, saying that it means the
combination of man and hu(n)sh—dignity and
consciousness.
10. Between 60 and 64 years, 10% of Indians suffer
from impaired mobility, and 10% are hospitalized
at any given time. More than 50% of Indians above
70 years of age suffer from chronic diseases. P H
Reddy, ‘The Health of the Aged in India’, Health
Transition Review, supplement to vol 6 (Australian
National University, 1996), 233.
11. Himachal Pradesh’s Maintenance of Parents and
Dependents Bill, dated 1996, was the first of its
kind in India. The bill contains a statement of objectives
and reasons: ‘In the developing age of science
and technology, our old virtues are giving
way to materialistic and separatistic tendencies.
The younger generations are neglecting their wives,
children, and aged and infirm parents, who are
now being left beggared and destitute on the scrapheap
of society, thereby driven to a life of vagrancy,
immorality, and crime for their subsistence.’ On 6
December 2007, a more comprehensive bill of this
genre was passed by the Indian Parliament.
12. According to the World Health Organization
China is the only country where the suicide rate
among women is higher than that among men.
13. D Beeston, Older People and Suicide (West Midlands:
Staffordshire University, 2006), 9.
14. In 1997, in UK, 20% of the population had death
ideation in the two preceding years. In Germany,
the figure was comparable in the course of just
one week. In Sweden, suicidal or death ideation
in the course of a month in 1996 was reported as
about 16%.
15 See, for instance, The Notebooks of Paul Brunton, vol
8: ‘Reflections on My Life and Writings’. The Indian
School of Business at Hyderabad has a new Centre
for Leadership, Innovation, and Change that structures
its teaching and research programmes on the
basis of the inter-connectedness of India’s traditional
wisdom and the cognitive science and management
theories of the West.
16. In 2004 there were 7.5 millions vops in India;
the US has nearly 1.5 times and China twice the
number.
17. I told the Chinese dignitary that M N Roy, an Indian
communist leader of international stature,
was a believer in an impersonal God.
18. See Flew’s video entitled Has Science Discovered
God? (2004). Among other things Flew says that
PB April 2009
the investigation of dna ‘has shown, by the almost
unbelievable complexity of the arrangements
which are needed to produce (life), that intelligence
must have been involved’. Flew’s concept
about God is more Vedantic than Semitic.
19. ‘A single consciousness, a universal wisdom, pervades
the universe. The discoveries of science,
those that search the quantum nature of subatomic
matter, have moved us to the brink of a startling
realization: all existence is the expression of this
wisdom. In the laboratories we experience it as
information that first physically articulated as energy
and then condensed into the form of matter.
Every particle, every being, from atom to human,
appears to represent a level of information, of wisdom.’
Gerald Schroeder, The Hidden Face of God
(New York: Touchstone, 2001), xi.
20. Experiments in parapsychology point out that reincarnation
is not a baseless doctrine. Many cases of
jatismaras—people remembering acquaintances
and things associated with their previous existences—have
been proved to be authentic.
21. Matthew, 17.12–13.
22. Druzism, an outstanding religious movement in
the Middle East, is considered by some to be Islamic
and by some others as non-Islamic.
23. On 21 November 2008 an eleven-year-old boy,
Brenden Foster, died of leukaemia in the Seattle
area. Before dying he knew that his days were numbered.
On his return from the clinic he saw the
homeless people of Nickelsville. The condition
of these people touched his heart. He expressed a
wish that homeless people should be provided with
food and drink. His wish, flashed by the media,
created a surge of generosity towards the homeless
across the US.
24. See Chhandogya Upanishad, 3.17.6 and Bhagavadgita,
chapter 2.
25. In many countries with Christian majorities, a
significant number of parents are rising in aversion
against the teaching of hatha yoga postures
in schools, because these are perceived as a way of
subtle proselytization.
26. A galaxy of Indian saints and devotees have illustrated
submission to the divine will through their
lives. Extending life with the notion that beyond
it there is extinction of joy is not a Hindu attitude.
Aging with spiritual orientation in Varanasi and
other places of pilgrimage is part of Indian spiritual
culture. Above all, the Indian penchant for
contact with the Divine gives a mission to the soul
in a worn-out frame.
27. Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 4.3.
269

Facing Old Age
Swami Ananyananda
270
H
ow we face old age depends on our atti-
tude. Swami Vivekananda has outlined
the attitude of the sannyasins in his ‘Song
of the Sannyasin’. Old age is like taking sannyasa,
retiring from active life. But we have also to continue
living in society. So when our work is over
it is our mental outlook that is to be changed; we
have to view things from the perspective of retirement.
God-realization is the main idea underpinning
the sannyasin’s life. You can live a monk’s life
even while working. Sri Ramakrishna has given us
the ideal of ‘shiva jnane jiva seva, service to humans
knowing them to be divine’. This perspective on
work is entirely different from the secular attitude.
If you have it, then there is no problem, no conflict
between work and inaction. You have to work; do
the work and then leave it aside; do not carry it in
your mind. Work is separate from your being.
I have seen Swami Madhavananda (1888–1965)
working as the general secretary of the Ramakrishna
Order. He would sit in a deck-chair in a small room
and do his work. He had eczema all over his body,
but his mind was clear and unaffected by the ailment.
He would apply medicinal cream, cover the
eruptions with plantain leaves, and work on his
translation of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. His
was a very strict life.
It is our mental attitude that matters. How you
cultivate your mind is what makes a difference.
Your attitude towards your personal life and work is
very important. Swami Vireswarananda mentions
the importance of harmonizing the four yogas—
bhakti, karma, jnana, and raja—in one’s life. According
to Swami Vivekananda one’s personality
is well-rounded only when all these faculties are
harmoniously developed. You must work for this
when you are physically fit. You may memorize the
Upanishads, Bhagavadgita, and other scriptures
in your youth. When you become old, you cannot
remember all of them. But you can still recite and
live by whatever you remember.
When you are young you have the power to resist,
the ability to fight adversity. But as you grow
old you become conscious of your helplessness. You
have to depend on others even for such simple activities
as brushing your teeth or taking bath. You
have to understand your position and adapt yourself
accordingly. That is the teaching I got from
Swami Sarvagatananda in Karachi—understand
the situation and adjust yourself, then there would
not be any problem. The world will not adjust to
you. It will not change. You have to adapt yourself
to the changing situation if you want to remain
happy and composed. Otherwise there will be perpetual
conflict. There is no alternative to undergoing
the suffering that old age often entails; neither
can you take away your life—that is considered
improper in the Indian tradition.
Making the Whole World One’s Own
It is only through suitable adjustments that you can
master the circumstances in which you find yourself
in old age and maintain your equanimity and peace
of mind. And this is very much possible. Otherwise
you will constantly be fighting—this is not good,
that is bad, and so on. You will always be finding
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fault. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi has said that
we should not see others’ faults; rather we should
see our own faults. And she also wanted us to make
the whole world our own! What a great Vedantin
she was! The whole of Vedanta is contained in this
one sentence: ‘Make the whole world your own.’
Kapila says, ‘Aham sarveshu bhuteshu bhutatma
avasthitah sada; I (the Divine) abide in all beings
as their inmost soul.’ That is what Holy Mother
also says, though in a different language: the whole
world is your own; none is a stranger. But do we feel
that? We feel closer and friendlier to some; some
others appear very repulsive, their very appearance
produces aversion. The world is not uniform. We
meet people of different temperaments, everyone
cannot be to our liking and we cannot be liked by
everyone. So we have to adjust.
Some make an effort to understand the people
they meet, form genuine affiliations, and try to live
happily. There are numerous problems in human
relationships. Meeting of minds is rare. Serious differences
between husband and wife are common.
So many unpleasant things follow; families disintegrate.
Earlier, it was not so much of a problem.
There were happy close-knit families; father, mother,
brother, and sister—all would try to live happily
despite differences. The joint family system was a
blessing in this respect. Now that is gone. Instead
we have small nuclear families that tend to break up
more easily. Thus society keeps changing; we have to
adjust ourselves to the times—to the social changes,
the change in values—if we wish to live happily.
Attenuating Ego and Desire
The old should not impose themselves on others.
If people seek their guidance, then they may pass
on whatever experience they have. But if they go
on dictating, they are likely to be ignored; most
people do not like being told what they ought to do.
Guidance is different from dictating. Do not seek,
do not shun. Whatever comes of its own accord,
do that. You have to keep adapting yourself to the
times. Age overtakes us. We know that this is inevitable;
we see things changing continuously. We see
PB April 2009
Facing Old Age 23
people dying every day. Yet our ego, ahamkara, is so
strong that we are unable to accept that we too shall
have to leave our bodies. We should be prepared for
that. Nothing is perfect in this world. It is our duty
to try to improve ourselves and the things under
our control as much as possible. But we also need
to remember that, whatever we may do, one day we
shall pass away, our bodies will die.
Why should you desire? If you do not have any
desire, you will be happy. The Gita says:
Prajahati yada kaman
sarvan partha manogatan;
Atmanyevatmana tushtah
sthitaprajnas-tadochyate.
O Partha, when one fully renounces all desires of
the mind, and remains satisfied in the Self alone
through the Self, then is one called a person of
steady wisdom.
You have to channelize your desires, not suppress
them. Suppression is not healthy. Instead you
should channelize them positively and slowly annihilate
them.
Living Advaita
If one is dedicated to the ultimate goal of life—Godrealization
or establishment in one’s true Being—
and if one is grounded in Advaita Vedanta, then
aging and death are but passing phases in one’s journey
to the Supreme. It is very difficult to become
identified with the Truth underlying our being. To
be able to experience and say, ‘I am not the body, I
am not the mind’, is a very high stage, which is difficult
to attain. The pain and suffering caused by the
body will remain. Old age comes, you cannot avoid
it. There is disease; and Sri Ramakrishna has said that
you have to take care of the body, you cannot neglect
it, you have to consult the doctor. Some people pass
away while sleeping; they are blessed. That will not
happen to everybody. Everyone has to experience
the result of their karma. The knowledge that ‘I am
of the nature of pure Consciousness, I am Shiva; chidananda
rupah shivo’ham, shivo’ham’ is very difficult
to attain. Sometimes you may feel a glimpse of it; but
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24
we must remember that intellectual understanding is
one thing while intuitive experience is entirely different.
All the same, this jnana can be attained.
Suffering is common in old age. Good people,
with good families, who have lead good lives, even
they suffer. So to attain a measure of detachment
one needs to cultivate devotion to God. Sri Ramakrishna
has pointed out that even a householder
can become a devotee and develop dispassion, can
renounce. There are great householders leading
pure lives. The householder’s renunciation is internal,
in the mind, whereas the monk has to renounce
both internally and externally.
In old age you need not achieve anything. You
have contributed something in your earlier days;
whatever that contribution might have been, it is
now over. A feeling of not being able to contribute
to society is inevitable. Hence you have to
cultivate the understanding that you have done
enough. If you are not able to do anything in old
age you ought to realize that you need not be doing
something all the time. The satisfaction of work
done while young is sometimes of little use when
one grows old. This is a matter of personal feeling.
Never theless, at an advanced age you generally have
no obligations. This is the time when one has to live
with the knowledge of Advaita, of pure Being.
Advaita is difficult to practise. When at Madras
a pandit asked him if he was an Advaitin or a Dvaitin,
Swami Vivekananda replied, ‘So long as I have
Prabuddha Bharata
this body, I am a dualist, but not afterwards.’ The
Drig-Drishya Viveka says:
Dehabhimane galite vijnate paramatmani;
Yatra yatra mano yati tatra tatra samadhayah.
With the disappearance of attachment to the body
and with the realization of the Supreme Self, whatever
object the mind is directed to becomes an occasion
for samadhi.
As long as one is conscious of the body, the idea
of separateness remains. It is mere impudence to say,
‘I am not the body’, when all the while you are feeling
it. You feel even a pinch. So dehabhimana, identification
with the body, should go; ahamkara should
go; mano nasha, total attenuation of the mind, must
take place—only then is one truly established in
Advaita. And that is a very high state of experience.
Success in facing old age depends on how you
have lived in your younger days. If you have lived
a disciplined life, you will have peace now. If you
have lived a reckless life and wish to now change
your life all of a sudden when you are old, that is
not possible. What you do in your early life or previous
lives, you pay for in old age. Do not complain.
Whatever you have done is done. Remember to
avoid fresh wrongs. Everyone can teach us something.
We can learn because we have the capacity to
discriminate. So avoid all unwholesome company
and activities. You have to keep your eyes and ears
open till your last breath.
P
Wrinkles should merely indicate
where smiles have been.
—Mark Twain
IMAGES: DAMON LYNCH
Among all my patients in the
second half of life … there has
not been one whose problem
in the last resort was not that
of finding a religious outlook
on life.
—Carl Jung

Aging: The Indian Context
Swami Narasimhananda
‘W
hy do you want a housing loan at this
age? What happened to your present
house?’ The volley of questions from the
chief personnel officer of the hospital where Shila
worked fell on her stoic face. ‘I cannot help you if
you do not give me the details,’ said the chief sternly,
much to the embarrassment of Shila, whose colleagues
were standing nearby.
Shila could not contain herself any longer and
started sobbing, ‘Sir, yesterday night my two sons
drove me and my husband out of the house we had
built out of our hard-earned savings. We have a
small plot of land nearby. We spent the night there
in a shed. Our sons now want us to build another
house and be away from their lives. This is why I
need the loan badly. What is my fault? I brought
up my two sons and daughter as best I could. Neither
I nor my husband have had any formal education.
Both of us worked hard day and night, got our
daughter married, and procured decent employments
for both our sons, paying heavy bribes. We
were happy thinking we could enjoy our retirement.
But today we are deserted. Looking after one’s parents
has been the family tradition for generations.
What happened to my children? Or was anything
wrong with our parenting? Is this the result of our
bad karma? What does the Lord want from us?’
The chief had no answers to these questions, but he
hastened to process Shila’s loan application.1
Aging in Early Vedic Times
PB April 2009
The questions posed by Shila compel us to review
the status of the aged in Indian society across the
centuries. Were the old in India always in such predicament,
or are we witnessing a shift in priorities
in Indian society? To understand the evolution of
traditions associated with old age we need to overview
Indian society from Vedic times.
A survey of Vedic literature shows us that old
age was welcomed by contemporary society.2 With
the threat of natural calamities and diseases always
lurking around, humans of the Vedic period often
had their lives cut short well before the cherished
hundred years. Given the limitations of the social
structure, civic amenities, and knowledge resources
then available, illnesses and injuries—from wars, accidents,
or animals and insects—took a heavy toll
on human lives. Everyone prayed that they might
live longer, get to see their grandchildren, and encounter
death only late in life. Their desire was to
live life to its fullness, enjoy the company of successive
generations of offspring, and die only after attaining
old age. Old age was glorified and the sick
were blessed that they could recover and die natural
deaths. A prayer on behalf of a sick person in the
Atharva Veda says, ‘Unto old age do I commit you
[the sick]; unto old age do I instigate you; may old
age, excellent, conduct you; let the other deaths go
away, which they call the remaining hundred.’ 3 Thus
old age was something to be happy about and not
a cause of fear, since to live longer was considered a
sign of vitality and good luck rather than a struggle
with the failing body and its associated ailments.
We find various poetic descriptions of aging and
subsequent death in the Vedas. The Shatapatha
Brahmana portrays old age as a boatman carrying
individual souls to the other shore, death.4 A hymn
from the Atharva Veda presents death as something
that permeates every moment of human life. This
hymn seeks blessings for the journey from birth to
old age and death.5
People in the early Vedic era spent their relatively
short lives in education and subsequent
management of their households. Retirement was
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not contemplated, and it was considered a great
blessing if one could continue living well after one’s
children were married. The system of four ashramas—
including retirement into contemplative life in the
forest, Vanaprastha, and Sannyasa—seems to have
become regularized only in Upanishadic times and
may have signified a longer and more stable life.
274
From Yearning to Fear
With advances in general social life and medical
knowledge, the late Vedic era probably witnessed an
increase in the average lifespan, which is reflected
in the development of the system of four ashramas.
The average human life was now divided into the
phases of education, Brahmacharya, household
life, Grihastha, retirement to forest for contemplation,
Vanaprastha, and renunciation or mendicancy,
Sannyasa. Ethical manuals called Dharmashastras
laid down the general rules for each phase of life.
Old age, which in early Vedic times was a period
to be cherished, became an object of fear—a reminder
of the impermanence of life and the ensuing
death. It was the time for renouncing worldly
life and preparing for death. Ways to eliminate or
transcend the suffering caused by old age were actively
sought. Meditation and contemplation on
the ephemeral nature of the world were prescribed,
even as endeavours to overcome aging and death
were undertaken.
The people of the post-Vedic era were advised
to spend the latter part of their lives in retirement,
contemplating the perishable nature of the human
body, and pursuing the higher realities of life. At
this stage a person was expected to renounce enjoyments
of the senses. The materialists were of course
of the view that one should enjoy sense pleasures till
one is exhausted. However, the famous anecdote of
King Yayati occurring in the Bhagavata emphasizes
the futility of this approach and asserts that the best
way to transcend the snares of the senses is to give
up sense enjoyment.6
According to Vedic tradition the body is an instrument
that the soul uses to exhaust its karma,
the accumulated effects of past actions. Birth and
Prabuddha Bharata
death are but phases in the perpetual transmigratory
cycle of existence. This cycle of birth and death
goes on till all the effects of an individual soul’s
actions are exhausted or neutralized. This is liberation,
moksha. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad
says, ‘The individual soul, considering itself and
the Controller as different, revolves in this great
Wheel of Brahman that is the sustenance of all and
the place of dissolution of all. When (one’s Self ) is
adored as (identified with) It (the Supreme), one
attains immortality.’7 The realization of one’s identity
with the Power driving this cycle is the way
to come out of it. Hence, according to the Vedas,
aging and death do not mean the decay or destruction
of the embodied entity. In the natural process
of evolution of thought, post-Vedic society gave a
pronounced metaphysical dimension to aging. In a
sense, the average human being started fearing the
arrival of old age, in contrast to the yearning for it
seen in the early Vedic era.
Early Geriatric Medicine in India
Aging has several aspects to it. It is most manifest
in the physical body. Ayurveda is a traditional
system of medicine which deals with the general
principles of human health from a typically Indian
viewpoint. Therefore, to get an idea of the
ancient Indian understanding of aging we need to
go through the principal Ayurvedic texts: Charaka
Samhita and Sushruta Samhita. It is interesting to
note that, several centuries prior to the development
of modern medicine, these texts contained
highly developed concepts of geriatrics harmoniously
interwoven with Vedic metaphysical ideas.
For instance, the idea that a soul gets embodied to
exhaust the actions of past births is also found in
Ayurvedic texts, which state that ‘life is a productive
and dynamic aggregate of sense organs, mind,
body, and self, held together and maintained over
a definite period of time by the power of karma
performed in previous lives’.8
According to Ayurveda, the human body is supported
and sustained by three humours which are
derived from three basic elements: kapha, from
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water; pitta, from fire; and vata, from wind. These
humours originate from the food eaten, digested,
and assimilated by us. The humours of the body
have a macrocosmic dimension also, as detailed by
Sushruta: ‘Just as the moon, sun, and wind uphold
the world by their action of release, absorption, and
dissemination respectively, even so do kapha, pitta,
and vata act with regard to the body.’ 9 The balance
or imbalance of these humours cause good or
ill health respectively. These humours are always
changing, depending upon the person’s activity and
the environment lived in. Human beings are sustained
by the nutrient fluid produced by the action
of the three humours, and this fluid needs to be
preserved with great care. The humours are responsible
for both the physical and psychic health of an
individual. Maintaining proper balance of these
three humours was the major concern of health
care in ancient times. However, aging was inevitable
even then.
Aging begins just after birth. The initial years of
growth and development of the body camouflage
this aging process, which becomes manifest only
when one starts to weaken physically. According to
Charaka, aging is a gradual process and brings with
it certain geriatric ailments which have no remedy.
These are to be taken as signs of impending death.
The process of aging has been vividly described in
Ayurvedic texts. According to Sushruta, ‘after the
age of seventy, with each passing day, the seven
bodily elements, sense organs, energy, vitality, and
enthusiasm undergo a significant decline giving
rise to wrinkled skin, grey hair, baldness, chronic
cough, and shortness of breath. The aging individual’s
capacity to perform all kinds of functions
gets progressively reduced. Eventually, the person
goes under, like an old home giving in after a heavy
downpour.’10 The psychological symptoms of aging
have also been detailed by the medical practitioners
of ancient India.
Human beings have always wanted to overcome
aging and to live as long as possible. But eternal life
in the human body has eluded them. Ancient systems
of medicine are believed to have contained
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Aging: The Indian Context
Ayurvedic
physician,
vaidya,
examining
a patient’s pulse
keys to delay greying. Today we know that Ayurveda
prescribes methods to delay the aging process.
Longevity has also been explored in Ayurvedic
texts. Ayurvedic practitioners would examine the
newborn for signs of longevity. To delay the process
of aging and overcome ailments born of old
age, they prescribed rejuvenation therapy or rasayana
and revitalization or vajikarana. They are the
ancient Indian equivalents of modern preventive
geriatrics. The main principle behind these therapies
is that a systematic synthesis of appropriate
food, ahara, and balanced lifestyle, vihara, will lead
to the rejuvenation of vigour, vaja or ojas, of the
body. Certain natural substances were identified as
potential aids in rejuvenation which could considerably
compensate for the wasting the body suffers
due to old age.
In keeping with traditional Indian philosophy,
Charaka says that moderation is the key to longevity.
The body is compared to a vehicle: just as a ve hicle
properly used wears out gradually but may break
its axle if driven carelessly, similarly the body will
last longer if used judiciously but will perish early
if misused. Frittering away one’s vital energies leads
to physical decline, speeding up the aging process. A
disciplined life with adherence to personal hygiene
275

was therefore considered important. Charaka defines
old age as the period between sixty and one
hundred years. It is interesting that the time of onset
of old age as specified by this ancient phys ician coincides
with the age for retirement prescribed by
the government of almost all countries.
Rejuvenation therapy may produce remarkable
results in recovering the vitality of an aging body
and mind. It removes fatigue, mitigates weakness,
improves digestion, enhances vigour, and improves
skin lustre. The body is purified by cleansing the intestines
thoroughly and removing impurities from
the circulation. In addition to physical purification,
these therapies also include chanting of Vedic
hymns and the practice of silence, meditation, and
contemplation. Thus, the process of rejuvenation is
holistic, revitalizing both body and mind. Application
of special medicinal oils and dietary hygiene
are part of rejuvenation therapy. Even today this
form of Ayurvedic therapy is very popular and attracts
people from all over the globe to India.
Present-day Health Care
for the Aged Indian
276
Medieval Ayurvedic physician at work
Shila’s plight is a reflection of the many problems
faced by aged women in contemporary India,
where specialized geriatric medical care remains a
rarity. Even in hospitals with independent departments
for care of the elderly, only the economically
privileged few are able to afford
these facilities. Traditional systems
of medicine like Ayurveda are also
very expensive, and the providers of
these facilities are more interested
in serving ‘medical tourists’ coming
from abroad than catering to
the needs of their fellow countrymen.
In rural India the old are still
taken care of within the family, but
urban India is witnessing a displacement
of older members to different
institutions, old-age homes in particular.
The Indian medical system is
yet to come to terms with the large
number of households in the country which are
not equipped to provide adequate nursing care for
their elder members, with some of those families
even unwilling to undertake such care. Government
hospitals attend to the aged only if they are
ill. Though Ayurveda considers old age itself a disease
and though the physiological complexities of
old age call for special medical care, an average senior
citizen in India gets nothing but salutatory respect
from Indian medical institutions. Even with
a growing number of ngos coming forward to support
the cause of the aged, it still remains to be
seen whether society will respond to this problem
by providing proper care to the elderly within the
family set-up, or whether government and private
enterprises will intervene and provide better institutional
health care facilities for the elderly. The
likes of Shila need to wait till then.
The Social Dimension
With a shift in traditional familial roles, the aged
find their activities curtailed, which in turn leads to
a feeling of not being wanted by family and society.
In the past joint family structures in India allowed
the aged to remain an integral part of the family
and act as guides to successive generations as well,
handing over valuable family knowledge and social
traditions. This gave them a useful engagement,
and the parenting duties of their immediate off-
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Aging: The Indian Context 29
spring were also shared. In the process, childhood
and old age—both phases of life requiring abundant
personal attention—came in close contact.
Even a few decades ago Indian society did not consider
the aged a burden, but treated them as valued
keepers of tradition deserving respect and care.
The increase in nuclear families, a consequence of
the rapidly changing cosmopolitan nature of jobs,
moved the elderly from an adored position to one
of a fringe group that had to be somehow tolerated.
This paved the way for old-age homes. Children too
are now kept very busy by the demands of curricular
and non-curricular education imposed on them
by a highly demanding society; they have no time
to sit and learn from the generation that brought
up their parents.
With the ‘de-traditionalization’ of society old
age is no more a hallowed institution. The culture
of old-age homes is not prevalent in rural areas, but
urban India is rapidly opting for the convenience
of dumping its senior citizens in institutional care
facilities. Though not considered proper in the Indian
tradition, separation of ailing elders from one’s
home is today seen as an action, both pragmatic and
essential, for coping with escalating social demands.
Tumultuous changes in urban Indian lifestyle have
only accentuated such perceptions. For instance,
the daily routine, or the lack of it, of the average
youth can only shock their grandparents. Instead of
rethinking the nature of this cultural shift, society
prefers to take the path of least resistance: avoiding
or neglecting the previous generation.
Overall health care in India has improved over
the years and consequently the population of the
aged is steadily increasing. But the country is illprepared
to provide for the elderly segment of its
population. There is no systematic welfare programme
for the aged and they are largely left to
themselves. The old are expected to only lead a religious
life without much participation in social
activities. Notwithstanding that this trend is due
to the cultural inheritance from Vedic times, such
an attitude does not always allow the aged to cultivate
diverse interests to quell their boredom. Moreover,
even when elderly people go on pilgrimage
they find it difficult to access the amenities needed
for alleviating their physical strain. The provisions
made for taking care of the special facilities the aged
require during travel are still rather rudimentary.
In India aging and the elderly have generally
been looked at from the male perspective. The
problems specific to women—aggravated by the
fact that they usually outlive their husbands, who
are their principal financial support—have never
been properly addressed from a feminine perspective.
Old age for a typical Indian woman turns out
to be a mere extension of her subordination to a
patriarchal society. With bodies failing and household
activities nearly absent, elderly couples feel the
need for close emotional understanding extending
beyond the physical plane. In a largely orthodox
patriarchal set-up this often becomes difficult.
Problems brought about by the dynamically
evolving cultural ethos of Indian society are being
addressed by specialized research institutes. Many
universities have started courses focusing on the
problems of aging and the aged with specific reference
to the Indian situation. While it may take
several years for these studies to find practical application,
society as a whole needs to take steps to
make sure that this issue does not get out of control,
as it has occurred in countries like China where
caring for the aged population has turned into a
major crisis. Retirement plans for the old should
not only be economically oriented but ought also
to address the inevitable lifestyle changes required
of the elderly.
Though in the government of India there are separate
departments for women and children, there is
no specialized department for senior citizens; their
needs are presently addressed by the department of
social justice and empowerment. In 1999 the government
formulated a ‘National Policy for Older
Persons’. Various schemes were undertaken in pursuance
of this policy. These include:
Strengthening of primary health care system to
enable it to meet the health care needs of older
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30
278
persons; training and orientation to medical and
paramedical personnel in health care of the elderly;
promotion of the concept of healthy aging;
assistance to societies for production and distribution
of material on geriatric care; provision of
separate queues and reservation of beds for elderly
patients in hospitals; extended coverage under the
Antyodaya Scheme with emphasis on provision
of food at subsidized rates for the benefit of older
persons, especially the destitute and marginalized
sections.11
Nevertheless, the concerned executive agencies
need to ensure greater penetration of these policies
at grass-roots level to be of real use to society.
Financial Security
The question of financial security in old age bothers
everyone, even the youth. People save large sums
of money, purchase real estate and gold, and invest
in stocks and shares to ensure that they need not
depend on others for their daily needs when old.
In spite of all these precautions, it is seen that a
minor fluctuation in their cash reserves entails lots
of problems for the aged. The elderly often get adequate
care and respect only if they have money to
spend. Table I below gives an idea of the economic
independence of the aged in India as reported
by the ‘nss Fifty-second Round: July 1995–June
1996’, published by the National Sample Survey
Organization, Department of Statistics, Ministry
of Planning and Programme Implementation, Government
of India, Calcutta, in 1998.
This table brings out the striking disparity in
the economic freedom enjoyed by the elderly male
and female populace of India. About half of the
aged male population seems to be financially independent,
as against a meagre 11–12 per cent of
females. The government of India offers many financial
benefits to the aged, including income-tax
rebates, old-age pension, additional bank interest,
and railway and air fare concessions.12 Still the majority
of the elderly do not see themselves as financially
independent.
Wealth can bring additional problems for the
Prabuddha Bharata
aged, rendering them more vulnerable to burglar
attacks, constant demands from relatives, and litigation.
The Indian government needs to develop
State of Economic
Independence
Not dependent
on others
Partially dependent
on others
Fully dependent
on others
Table I: State of Economic Independence
of the Elderly in India
(per cent of people aged above sixty)13
Male
Female
Rural Urban Rural Urban
48.5 51.5 12.1 11.5
18.0 16.9 14.6 11.0
31.3 29.7 70.6 75.7
Not recorded 2.2 1.9 2.6 1.8
special mechanisms for handling litigations involving
the aged. The recent killings of retired people
for money in posh residential localities of the national
and state capitals are matters of serious concern.
Such incidents snatch away the mental peace
of old people and bring home to us the helpless
situation of the elderly in urban India. All the same,
financial freedom is essential for proper sustenance,
security, and health in old age. Everyone ought to
be prepared for old age by saving sufficiently, if one
is to avoid Shila’s financial predicament.
Embracing Old Age and Death
At the dawn of our lives, with the effulgent rising
sun of vitality and vigour bringing with it distant
beauties and promises veiled by the mist of expectation
and inviting us to uncover them, we are totally
unprepared for old age and death. With a refreshing
feeling in our minds and a ‘can do everything’
spirit, we plunge into activity amidst the happy
chimes of life’s small joys. About midway through
our lives, with heavy responsibilities to shoulder
and lots of dreams yet to be fulfilled, we console
ourselves thinking that there is just a little more to
be done before one can rest. We seek occasional retreats
and come back to work with renewed vigour.
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Even then, we seldom seriously consider the possibility
of greying and dying.
In the evening of our lives the end is very palpable.
The setting sun of our strength forces us to
go through repeated reviews of the days that were.
With no power to alter the past and very little say
in the matters of the present, we resign ourselves to
fate, or more precisely, to time. We feel like shouting
out loud and warning the succeeding generations:
‘Be careful! Time is cruel! Make use of it
when you do have the support of your body. Learn
from our mistakes.’ But our voice does not seem to
reach out to the multitudes out there.
Our life is full of days marked by rising expectations,
in chasing them, and tiring in our chase. In
this entire hullabaloo we are left unprepared for the
end. The one thing certain in all life, all processes,
all cycles, and all material objects is the end: destruction,
death. However factual this truth may
be, it is ironical that we want to find certitude in
all other things than the only thing which is in
reality certain—our death. Replying to the questions
posed by the Yaksha, Yudhishtira famously
said that though we constantly see people dying,
we very easily forget that we too will die—that is
the greatest surprise. By some inconceivable logic
we consider ourselves above such mortal laws! This
is equally true of aging.
What should we do then? Contemplate death;
remind ourselves of our end at every moment; despair
of a doomed existence? Far from that. We need
to constantly remind ourselves how we have to accomplish
a lot in a limited time. It is also a good
reason why we should find ways to transcend death.
In the past many have trodden this path and have
actually transcended death. People with devotional
temperament can connect every moment of their
life to their Chosen Ideal. They can constantly
chant the name of God and convert their lives into
an incessant prayer. Those inclined towards the
non-dual Advaita can dwell in the consciousness
of the Self, the Atman, non-different from the one
Brahman. And for one not professing any faith, life
should be treated as an opportunity for as many
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Aging: The Indian Context 31
constructive and creative acts as possible, redeemed
by being of help to fellow beings. Moreover, life
could be a conduit for spreading the message of
love to one and all.
Though society needs to help Shila undo the
injustice heaped on her, she would also have to reconcile
herself to her sons’ behaviour. But in Krishna,
her Chosen Deity, she has a companion who would
not fail her. Thinking of him brings her solace, and
by means of this constant recollection she can hope
to be united with him in life as well as in death.
Let our lives be a preparation for old age. Let
our lives be spent in getting fulfilled and sharing
this fulfilment with others. Let us train our bodies
and minds to be stable at all times—in prosperity
and adversity, in good health and ill heath, in happiness
and misery—by practising a measure of detachment.
Then, on reaching old age, we would not
be afraid of embracing death. Let us be prepared to
welcome death. We would then smile at death with
the full knowledge that it is only a passing phase
which cannot destroy us, which cannot destroy
the lives we have fruitfully spent. We may not be
earthly realities tomorrow but our lives would definitely
have left an indelible mark on some minds
which will continue to live.
P
Notes and References
1. This anecdote is based on a true incident.
2. See Shrinivas Tilak, Religion and Aging in the Indian
Tradition (Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1997), 16.
3. Atharva Veda, 3.11.7.
4. Shatapatha Brahmana, 2.3.3.15.
5. Atharva Veda, 8.1.
6. Bhagavata, 9.19.14.
7. Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 1.6.
8. Charaka Samhita, ‘Sutrasthana’, 1.42; ‘Sharirasthana’,
1.53.
9. Sushruta Samhita, ‘Sutrasthana’, 21.8.
10. Ibid., ‘Sutrasthana’, 35.29.
11.
accessed 23 January 2009.
12. accessed 23 January 2009.
13. Ashish Bose and Mala Kapur Shankardass, Growing
Old in India—Voices Reveal, Statistics Speak
(Delhi: B R Publishing, 2004), 337.
279

A Journey through Life
Dr Dipak Sengupta
It was evening, and I was waiting for the Mumbai
mail at Howrah station. I had arrived a little early
and had some two hours to kill. Time was moving
slowly at the Wheelers and other book stalls. To
spend thirty-six hours alone in a train I would need
some reading material. I started glancing through
some Bengali magazines—it is easier for me, at my
age, to read Bengali type in the dim light of the train
compartment. As I browsed, a few names passed
through: Unish–Kuri (Nineteen–Twenty), a magazine
for late teenagers; Sukhi Grihakone (Happy
Family), for the newly married; Nay–Dash (Nine–
Ten) for secondary examinees; Sananda, for women;
Anandalok, a Bollywood/Tollywood cinema news
magazine; Suswasthya, for the younger generation.
Desh was once my favourite magazine, but I did not
enjoy the novels and stories recently published—too
much of sex and extramarital affairs, the characters
were just not known to me, and even the articles appeared
stale. It was frustrating to note that all the
magazines were for the younger generation; nothing
for the aged. Do we not belong to society any
more? Are we outcasts? When writers grow old, do
they continue writing about the love affairs and sex
of younger people? Irritated, I left for the platform.
I had booked my ticket three months ago at
a computerized booking counter in order to get
a lower berth. These days people book tickets online,
through computers, paying with credit cards. I
could not imagine myself tinkering with a computer.
Indian Railways assured us that senior citizens
would get lower berths, but this is not always the case
in reality—hence the trip to the reservation office.
Lower berth is a must for me; with arthritic knees like
mine climbing to the upper birth requires the grace
of Bhagavan Krishna, who alone can ‘make the lame
man cross mountains’—old age itself is a disease.
280
I must admit that I have always got help from
younger boys present in the compartment, who
help me make my bed or set my luggage in place.
Some of them even exchange their lower berth with
my upper one, without even being requested. I have
always been their ‘kaka’, uncle—let a few years pass
and I will be their ‘dadu’, grandfather.
As the train picked up speed, the noise in the
compartment gradually subsided. Everybody was
settling down. I was already under a blanket. Soon
the lights would be switched off. It was so much
more comfortable now. I belong to the steam-engine
age: the dusty smoke would irritate one’s eyes and
I would often be thrashed by my mother for keeping
the window open; but the window would remain
open all the same. There was so much fun for
such a small price—the trees would move faster
than the crops in the fields and the blooming lotuses
in the ponds. Third class sleeper coaches used
to have wooden benches and we had to carry our
own bedding. There used to be a contrivance called
holdall—aptly named. Newer generations probably
have not seen one. What a change the railways have
undergone in the last twenty years; the computerized
reservation system and moderately priced airconditioned
coaches are two developments that
have made travelling much less of a bother. We do
not have to carry our bedding any more—it is now
provided, pressed and packed. The only complaint I
have is that in the air-conditioned coaches the fleeting
sceneries through the windows are no longer
there. Window panes are always so murky. Some of
the other fond childhood experiences—like watching
hawkers trying to sell tea and cigarettes with
cries of cha garam or pan-biri-cigret in the dead of
night or strolling lazily on the empty platforms of
small stations—are now mere memories.
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A Journey through Life 33
A Wagonload of Problems
I started my career in the early sixties as a coal-mine
manager. The mine happened to be on the main
Howrah–Delhi railway line. I used to stand on
the coal dumps by the railway track and watch the
wagons go by. Every wagon was marked with return
dates on the top left corner—07-08-65, 08-02-68,
02-03-72, and so on. I used to play a game, guessing
where I would be when the wagon returned home.
Many times the wagons went back to the workshop
for overhaul. Some of them might have been
scrapped and melted. I was still moving on, without
repair, waiting to be scrapped at any time. I did not
know how long I would have to wait.
Newspaper at Bilaspur station—but I was real ly
missing a Bengali magazine. A thought flashed in
my mind: why not publish one—it could be named
Sattar–Ashi (Seventy–Eighty), for like minded
people. I started composing the magazine mentally.
A section on health and nutrition would fit
in well: what and how much to eat, suggestions on
exercise or yoga for the aged, and the like. Some
social issues and spiritual pieces would also be appropriate.
A few short stories or reprints from our
times might be liked too. And of course, financial
issues and advice, always very important for retired
folks who live on savings only. We retired with a
handsome package, but within ten or fifteen years
our bank balance would be dwindling. You still
have quite a few years to live, and more so your
wife. Investment in right accounts becomes vital. If
a person has a mental inclination like mine, debit
and credit would not make much sense. To me investment
was always an intriguing problem. I know
what my savings are and the interest they accrue. So,
apparently, I should be able to know how much I
can spend every year and what luxury I can afford.
But a big ‘if ’ is always there. All realistic calculations
hinge upon my knowing when I am going to
die. That uncertainty kills me every time I attempt
my financial planning. Above all, there is a constant
threat of some serious ailment befalling at any time.
I have to be prepared for that as well. As a result I
may die either as a pauper or with a hefty bank balance.
Such uncertainty is very disconcerting.
Linked to this is a topic too big to be discussed
here in detail: health insurance. As you grow old
your insurance company becomes reluctant to
renew your medical insurance. I knew a man in his
seventies who forgot to renew his health insurance
for a year, and when he wanted to renew it again,
was denied the facility. An aged person needs advice
on such matters.
After addressing some peripheral, though not
less important, issues we can now rethink one of the
basic questions of old age: what does one do after
retiring at the age of sixty or sixty-five? One may
continue doing similar jobs for a few more years and
somehow ignore the problems of aging, as if there
were still many more years to come. There is a saying
in a Buddhist scripture: ‘You see the past as short,
future infinitely long.’ But as dusk approaches, one
starts feeling pain in the joints and is suddenly reminded
of the existence of the skeletal frame, which
unlike the soul can be burnt by fire, drenched by
water, and dried by wind. The body has been rightly
compared to a ragged dress. Even travelling by bus
becomes a nuisance; everybody younger—including
the conductor, who may suggest you try the next
bus—pities you. Most state governments are yet to
introduce reserved seats for senior citizens, as has
been done in Mumbai. There are many other inconveniences
of bus travels for the aged—you may be
subjected to catcalls, for instance. We have to create
our own shield to resist such external disturbances.
The Vanaprastha Way
The Smritis have a definite suggestion for the third
age: go and live in the woods—a system of life
termed ‘Vanaprastha’. According to Manu, when
a householder sees that he has developed wrinkles
and his hair has turned grey, when he has seen the
children of his children, he should take to forest life.
He may take his wife along with him, if she is willing.
Otherwise she may stay back with her children.
The forest dweller is to cover himself with rags or
the bark of trees and obtain no more food than
is necessary for subsistence, through begging or
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34
collection of roots and fruits. These, together with
the prescription of some other ritualistic duties,
make this kind of life too harsh for modern men
and women, who may see it as a formula for quick
death. And if an old man still attempts it, the forest
department would drive him out in no time.
The Manu Smriti has devoted a number of
shlokas to advise children on how to treat teachers,
parents, and brahmanas with love and respect. Mistreating
parents was considered an offence calling
for expiation. Chandrakirti, a Buddhist philosopher,
had an explanation for mistreatment of old
parents: ‘Sons cause troubles hundreds of time and
are remiss in acknowledging past favours. Because
the greater share of love goes to their own sons, they
forget the past and ignore their fathers at the same
time, just as if their fathers were strangers.’
Pitamaha Bhishma’s advice is more like a grandfather’s.
When the householder has his house full of
children and grandchildren and his happiness is at
its peak, he should detach himself from the family.
The third quarter of his life is to be lived as a Vanaprastha.
Whenever one finds old age taking over
the body, one should hand over all assets to one’s
sons and live a life totally disengaged from family
and social affairs. The householder may take shelter
in the woods to spend time in religious thoughts. A
Vanaprastha can have savings for a day, for a month,
for a year, or even for twelve years, though this last
is meant for hospitality and rituals—I am sure
Bhishma would not mind if we use it for our own
sustenance too. In those days it was thought proper
to take to Vanaprastha around the age of fifty. So
savings for twelve years was considered enough for
the rest of one’s life. The age for retirement today is
sixty; assuming that life expectancy has increased
significantly and given that inflation is a major
problem, saving for twenty years is mandatory.
Bhishma never took to Vanaprastha. Lying on
the bed of arrows and waiting for death, he must
have thought that it would have been better for
him to leave his family for the woods at the peak of
his happy times—when all the children of the family
were growing up well, when Acharya Drona was
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Prabuddha Bharata
training them in weaponry and Bhishma himself
was the master of the family, the kingdom, and the
dynasty. The rest of his life was largely one of sorrow.
He had to witness his grandsons’ wife being insulted
in public by her own brother-in-law, even as
he stood helpless. And the ultimate family feud was
the cruellest cut of all, which forced him to take up
arms against his favourite grandsons. All this unbearable
suffering was only due to his staying too
long with his family. That is the curse of old age.
So what would you do in old age? Would you
choose to live in your son’s family? Even if you contribute
to the family income, you are no longer the
master of the family. Your son gets all priority and
care. Your opinion becomes secondary. This may not
happen if your son chooses to stay with you along
with his family; you may remain the master, but with
extra burden and responsibility. You are expected
to act like the father of the family, handle all dayto-day
problems. Your wife would be looking after
the kitchen for the extended family. This would be
a twenty-four-hour job. You might like to have your
own free time for readings, hobbies, or a simple midmorning
nap. All this would also come to an end. If
you have enough financial resources you may afford
a man Friday, otherwise you have to live in an extended
family where the rest of the members would
be moving at a different pace; you would have to adjust
to the generation gap. An alternative is coming
up these days: comfortable, hotel-like old-age homes
in decent areas for parents of non-resident Indians
(nris). This may be a good system, provided any of
your children is an nri, and cares for you.
The Journey Continues
Nagpur station. I came out for a stroll on the platform.
Railway platforms all over India are a world in
themselves: hosts of people sitting, chatting, eating,
running, and even sleeping; from the meticulously
dressed business executive to the urchin in rags; a
few men cooking at one end of the station—every
group seems to have a separate zone and keeps a
respectable distance from each other.
I walked up and down the length of the train,
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observing that the passengers were mostly young.
Old people were disproportionately few in number.
Considering the financial limitations of senior citizens,
the Indian Railways offers them concessional
tickets. Still the number of seniors was small. Was
it due to their physical inability to travel? Or did
they deliberately avoid coming out into the crowd?
As it would not be possible for me to jump on to
a running bus or train any more, I returned to my
compartment. This incapability of old age was one
that I hated most. A poem by a well-known Kolkata
poet came to mind:
Can you wrestle and jostle your way up inside,
Then hang from a strap,
take the mad crush in stride?
If not, then Kolkata’s trams you relinquish,
And walk through the streets,
lost, sore, and foolish.
A new passenger had occupied the opposite
berth. I noticed some more change of faces. Language
took a turn from largely Bengali to Hindi.
The train picked up speed, so did the new passenger’s
conversation. He was a pleasant talker, and in no
time I came to know his life story. I thought he was
older than me, but he turned out to be of my own
age. I could not imagine I looked so old. I felt sad.
The gentleman was a Maharashtrian living in
Nagpur. He had a nice house there and being a
widower lived alone under the care of a full-time
attendant, whose cooking, he reported with a mischievous
smile, was better than his departed wife’s.
But he felt very lonely and missed her all the time.
His son refused to settle in Nagpur; instead he
was living in Mumbai with his wife and two children.
Theirs was such a small apartment that, the
gentleman confessed, he would never feel comfortable
there. At times during our chat he failed to
suppress his displeasure and irritation. The son was
so busy and tired that he could hardly talk to him.
His only solace was his grandchildren. But they too
were so burdened with their school, homework,
and tutors that they had little time to play or listen
to stories. Moreover, how could he compete with
their ‘Cartoon Network’ on TV or their computer
PB April 2009
A Journey through Life 35
games. The poor man hated the whole atmosphere,
but again, he missed them so much that he made it
a point to pay them a visit once a month or so. He
was not sure whether he was welcome there. Both
the son and his wife were so urbane that it was difficult
to fathom their feelings from their behaviour.
They were hooked to a chaotic mix of pollution, fast
food, rush, and noise—Nagpur was so peaceful. I
felt sorry for my co-passenger, not because his son
could not or would not come to Nagpur, but because
of his loneliness and lack of purpose in life. I
could feel it; he had to vent his emotions to a total
stranger in such un-homely surroundings.
I looked through the window and saw the paradox
of life—the sunset was so beautiful, throwing
red streaks on grey clouds. But to us the end always
brings a feeling of gloom.
It became dark outside. The compartment was
flushed with light. I was flipping through the pages
of an English magazine I borrowed from the young
man on the upper bunk. There was nothing of interest
to me in any of its topics. In my younger days I
used to be obsessed with all these issues, taking sides
and arguing with friends. Nothing of that seems to
matter now. On the long journey of life I left those
things by the wayside. The gentleman, who was talking
all through the evening, suddenly became quiet.
He was staring vacantly into the darkness outside.
His face was reflected on the window pane. I was
melancholically toying with the old man’s dilemma,
whose name was not even clear to me—these problems
are so common among older people.
The Film of Life
From that contemplation my mind drifted to some
excellent characterization of aged people in Bengali
literature. The first one that came to my mind was
Indir Thakrun in Pather Panchali (The Ballad of the
Road). The character was superbly portrayed in the
novel, no doubt, but it was Satyajit Ray’s film that
really immortalized her. Indir Thakrun, with her
brass pot and some torn clothes, fitted perfectly
into the Bengali society of her time. You do not feel
any pity for her because she blended so well with
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36
the environment. Sarvajaya, her distant cousin’s wife,
had some harsh words for her, but there was no malice
or cruelty in their relationship; they shared a
common poverty. Indir Thakrun reminded me of
my grandmother. Why only me, she probably presented
a similar picture to the minds of all of my
generation. My grandmother was a widow. She had
a separate kitchen and used to have one meal a day.
Though she was a strict vegetarian, her cooking was
heavenly. We would sit around her during her mealtime,
in spite of my mother’s scoldings, and wait for
a scoop to be loosely dropped on to our extended
palms. When young, she used to be a Gandhian in
her village and was famous for leading processions
and picketing liquor shops. She also took the lead
in burning British clothes. In the last year of her life
she could not remember anything and my mother
used to feed her. What a fall from grace.
Gautama Buddha is supposed to have said of
old age:
Age makes attractive bodies unattractive.
Age takes away one’s dignity, strength, and power.
Age takes away pleasures and makes one
an object of contempt.
Age deprives one of vitality, and age kills.
Prabuddha Bharata
was present throughout Indian history. The father
is upset and leaves his dinner unfinished. These are
very common incidents in present-day family life.
Aged people are generally cast in supporting
roles in movies. But I remembered a Hindi film,
Baghban, in which aged parents were in lead roles.
The story revolved around the parents’ problem
in getting shelter with their sons. All the sons refused
to provide them a place in their homes. At
one point the parents start living separately with
two sons. But as generally happens in Hindi films,
it all ended well on a sweet and emotional note.
Older persons are portrayed in contemporary literature
and films in largely stereotyped ways: lonely,
incompatible with the present generation, facing
financial and health problems.
The End?
When we are young we are indifferent to the world
around us and consider old-age problems as something
that would never happen to us. For many, to
talk about old age is depressing: ‘Think young and
you will be young.’ But alas, this body refuses to
obey such commands indefinitely. It withers away.
Again, a few lines from a Buddhist scripture:
In Satyajit Ray’s films we saw two retired, though
not so old, fathers. Both of them had problems in
coping with the modern-day environment. One of
them appears in the film Simabaddha (The Confined),
in which the father comes to his son’s house
and enters his drawing room unannounced. His
son is having a party which he has himself thrown
to celebrate his promotion as a ceo. Almost everybody,
including some of the ladies, has a wine glass
in hand. Both the father and the son are embarrassed.
The camera captured the father’s shock very
effectively. The other film, Jana Aranya (The Forest
of People), shows two sons living with their father
in their paternal home. The father has problems
accepting the culture of bribing in business deals;
he is especially upset when the elder brother advises
the younger not to have scruples in this regard,
insisting, while dining together, that bribing
284
You like long life
But dislike old age.
Alas! Your conduct seems right
[Only] to a person like you.
I had the good fortune of travelling through the
Himalayas for a month with a monk of the Ramakrishna
Order. We crossed many rope-bridges hanging
over deep gorges of rivers like the Alakananda
and the Mandakini. One day, while we were midway
upon one such bridge, the swami told me that these
sites were called Bhrigu Patana. Sannyasins tired of
living would come to such heights and drop themselves
into the gorge below after fixing their minds in
meditation. I liked the idea and thought it to be the
best way of leaving this world. But these days most
of these places are guarded by the military so that no
one commits suicide there. People may call it suicide,
but to me it is liberation. (Continued on page 300)
PB April 2009

Healthy Aging
Dr Bithi Sircar
May we see a hundred autumns, may we live a hundred
autumns, may we wake a hundred autumns,
may we ascend a hundred autumns, may we prosper
a hundred autumns, may we be a hundred autumns,
may we adorn a hundred autumns, more autumns
than a hundred. —Atharva Veda, 19.67.
PB April 2009
The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is
soon cut off, and we fly away. —Psalms 90.10.
Though several millennia have elapsed since
the Vedic rishis and the Hebrew psalmists articulated
the above thoughts, our predicament curiously
remains the same. Death is a certainty, whether
it be at seventy or a hundred. What concerns us, as
intensely as it did the sages of yore, is not so much
the natural limit of longevity, but the harnessing of
strength to live up to that age peacefully and happily.
Aging is now a global issue. The UN General Assembly
declared 1999 as the ‘International Year of Older
Persons’. And the Government of India declared
2000 as the ‘National Year for Older Persons’.
The problems of the aged in India have been deliberated
upon from ancient times, as testified by the
Smriti texts and the Mahabharata. But these problems
were never as complex and serious as they are
today. In a predominantly agricultural society, which
India is even today, land traditionally belonged to all
members of the family and possession followed the
hereditary parampara or lineage. In this system food
is produced by means of the physical labour of the
younger members—aided by the knowledge of the
elders—and is enough to meet the basic necessities
of life. Since the aged are the storehouse of traditional
knowledge, including trade secrets, they are
as important to the system as its younger members.
The extended family fits in perfectly with the environment,
with everyone contributing something to
the family and the community. On the other hand,
the nuclear family is a product of industrialization,
a period in which traditional knowledge apparently
lost its importance. Today, cultivation is controlled
by agro-labs and government agencies. Even household
remedies dispensed by grandmothers have
been replaced by modern over-the-counter medicines.
In such a situation the aged gradually become
a liability and are considered problematic by the
younger members of the family. Their contribution
to society in general and to the contemporary family
ambience in particular is easily forgotten.
The younger generation cannot be blamed for upsetting
traditional social structures. Increase in life
expectancy has resulted in a decline in the relative
proportion of earning members in society. People
above sixty currently represent around ten per cent
of the total world population, and this proportion
is expected to increase to twenty per cent by 2050.
This would have considerable economic and social
impact, especially in countries with low income. It
is not merely the basic sustenance of the extended
family that constitutes a substantial economic burden,
diseases and disabilities that the elderly are particularly
susceptible to add to the problem.
The Process of Aging
Old age is definitely not a disease in itself, but aging
beyond a point is accompanied by significant physiological
changes which render the body susceptible
to certain diseases and disabilities. The pattern and
sequence of these changes are the same for all, but
the rate at which these changes occur differs significantly
from person to person—the speed of decline
being proportional to one’s physical fitness and
emotional stability. Therefore, one must work on
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these factors much before the actual onset of decay.
Death is inevitable, but the last days of life can be
made happy and peaceful if one plans for them.
Aging initiates structural and functional changes
at tissue and cellular levels. According to an influential
theory of aging, the longevity of tissues is genetically
determined—with cells undergoing apoptosis
or programmed cell death in the end. There is a
progressive decline in tissue function with aging.
As a result, vital organs—brain, heart, lungs, liver,
and kidneys, among others—tend to lose efficiency
with age. The decline in the digestive system is commonly
noticed and, though by no means serious,
can be a cause of irritation. It is frustrating to find
things that we gobbled up like gluttons when young
causing indigestion and stomach ache in old age.
The intestinal musculature turns sluggish and there
is some decline in enzyme activity, which together
cause constipation and intolerance to certain foods.
Potentially more serious is the failure to properly absorb
such nutrients as calcium and vitamin B12, and
also the decrease in the activity of liver enzymes.
The Brain · A small proportion of brain cells
are lost with advancing age. But the remaining
cells have the ability to establish new connections,
which, coupled with the brain’s large functional
reserve, helps preserve cognitive capacities. If they
remain fit and well, older people do not lose the
ability to remember, learn, think, and reason. But
a major loss of brain cells, due to genetic factors,
reduced blood flow, or as yet unknown causes may
lead to dementia—a progressive and irreversible
global decline in higher brain function that robs
people of the ability to remember, think, understand,
communicate, and control behaviour. As
dementia has potentially devastating consequences,
research on delaying or preventing it is of central
importance to public health policy for the elderly.
Depression often coexists with dementia. However,
it is useful to distinguish between depression
as a manifestation of dementia and a true depressive
state without underlying structural brain disorder.
Depression occurs frequently among the medically
ill elderly population. Unfortunately, depression in
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Prabuddha Bharata
the elderly is often attributed to the aging process
and no intervention is undertaken, although effective
antidepressant therapies are available.
It is generally accepted that dementia and depression
have strong genetic bases. Nevertheless,
since gene expression is greatly influenced by environmental
factors, nutritional status, intake of
toxic substances, and presence of other pathologies,
care must be taken to address these. Higher plasma
levels of vitamins and micronutrients may have a
beneficial effect on brain function, whereas alcohol
in large amounts is toxic. Intake of a wide variety of
foods and recommended supplements helps optimize
brain function in older persons.
Complex Physiological Correlates · Osteoporosis,
decrease in bone density with increased
bone fragility, is a common cause of fractures, one
of the major causes of disability and death among
elderly. This well illustrates the complexities underlying
the physiological changes in aging. Women
are more prone to osteoporosis because of accelerated
bone loss triggered by hormonal changes
accompanying menopause. Inadequate exposure to
sunlight, lack of physical activity, and smoking are
additional factors closely associated with osteoporosis.
Adequate intake of calcium and vitamin D is essential
for preventing osteoporosis. Regular physical
exercise also promotes bone density. Milk and dairy
products, fish, egg, soybean, green leafy vegetables,
cereals, and millet are important sources of calcium.
The bioavailability of calcium in vegetable products,
however, is low. Many elderly people may find milk
difficult to digest due to decreased lactase secretion.
Such persons and those who are strict vegetarians
may need to take adequate supplemental calcium.
Any deficit in this complex chain of factors affecting
bone density and strength can render the elderly
susceptible to fractures and its consequences.
Preventive Care
It needs to be emphasized that most of the ailments
categorized as old-age diseases are not only curable
if diagnosed at the right time but can also be
avoided with a proper lifestyle. Aging begins right
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after birth and its effects are noticeable soon after
one reaches adulthood; so caring for one’s health
through proper diet and exercise in youth and middle
age is essential to prevent old-age diseases and
minimize their complications.
In answer to Dharma’s query about the surprise
of surprises, Yudhishthira said, ‘It is indeed a wonder
that though every day people die, the rest wish
to live for all eternity.’ Curiously, not to speak of
living for all eternity, often we do not even work
for a healthy and happy living. In developed societies
there is widespread awareness of the need for
periodic preventive health check-ups right from
the time one crosses thirty. Supermarket kiosks
allowing blood pressure and blood sugar measurements
are common. Smoking is going out of
fashion. People are avoiding red meat. Junk food
eateries are becoming unpopular.
Unhappily, many of the ills of developed countries
are now coming to haunt developing nations.
With economic progress there is a definite shift in
lifestyle. White-collar jobs have proliferated exponentially
and have fostered sedentary habits. Workers
are now often glued to their chairs, staring at
computer screens. The boom in bpos, call centres,
and cyber-cafes are proving an economic boon for
the unemployed, but sitting in the same posture
for hours doing the same job all through the day is
slowly killing the youth. The loss in future may more
than supersede today’s gains. Highly competitive
and demanding professional jobs are accompanied
by significant stress and take a heavy toll on body and
mind. This adds up when both husband and wife are
working. Affluence is often accompanied by frequent
eating out, increase in intake of red meat and junk
food, and falling consumption of greens. Pressure of
work disrupts one’s regular routine and the need to
cope with competition and stress draws people surreptitiously
into smoking and drinking. Lastly, environmental
pollution takes its toll. Body mechanisms
fail to adjust to rapidly changing demands and the
disruption of one’s habitual lifestyle; consequently,
minor ailments become common in adult life. This
in turn leads to increasing use of over-the-counter
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Healthy Aging 39
medicines. And indiscriminate use of medicines can
have serious side effects in the long run.
Nutrition
Nutrition is probably the most important factor
influencing the functional outcome of aging. It is
crucial to develop healthy nutritional habits at a
young age, as a body nourished properly in youth
and middle age is more likely to remain healthy in its
terminal days. Many chronic diseases like diabetes,
hypertension, heart disease, and arthritis first assert
themselves in middle age and persist into later days,
making them unbearable. Nutritional habits are
sometimes prime factors in initiating these diseases.
A balanced intake of carbohydrate, protein, fat,
vitamins, minerals, roughage, and water is essential
all through life. A diet rich in vegetables, fruits,
whole-grain cereals, and nuts is considered healthy.
For the elderly, reduction in harmful saturated fat
intake—by choosing low-fat dairy products, fish,
lean meat, and liquid vegetable oils—limiting salt
and total calories, and increasing calcium intake
is recommended. Water is the major component
of the human body, necessary for all body functions,
including moving nutrients into cells and
clearing waste products. The elderly are especially
likely to neglect water intake—two litres daily on
the average being the standard recommendation.
Taking one to four glasses of water first thing in the
morning can dramatically improve one’s sense of
well-being. Ayurvedic practitioners also stress the
importance of proper bowel clearance.
For the average elderly Indian, with limited physical
activity, a balanced diet would roughly include
300 g cereals; 150 g pulses, beans, fish, or lean meat;
500 ml fat-free milk; 2–3 cupfuls of vegetables; 1–2
medium-sized fruits; and 30 g of vegetable cooking
oil. But textbook prescriptions and nutritional
charts often do not work for the elderly. Diet and
nutrition in the elderly is a much more complex affair.
One must be able to chew food—which can
be seriously hampered by poor dental health or illfitting
dentures—and be able to digest it properly.
An aging body produces more of hormones and
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Benefits of Exercise
• Makestheheartstrongerandimprovescirculation.
• Decreasesbloodpressure.
• Decreasesthelevelsof‘bad’cholesterolandimproves
thatof‘good’cholesterol.
• Makesmusclesstronger;improvesbalance,coordination,andflexibility.
• Makesbonesdenserandstronger;helpspreventfalls
andfractures.
• Burnscalories,helpsmaintainhealthyweight;controls
bloodsugar,helpspreventandcontroldiabetes.
• Improvesdigestion;preventsconstipation.
• Booststheimmunesystem.
• Increasesendorphinlevels,boostsmoodandenergy,
reducespain,andmaylessendepression.
• Improvesmentalalertnessandconcentration;helps
withsleep.
• Reducesriskofcoronaryarterydisease,heartattack,
stroke,coloncancer,osteoporosis,andpossiblybreast
cancer.
neurotransmitters that decrease appetite and less
of those that stimulate it. Appetite may be further
reduced by failing taste and smell, decreased salivation,
and limited physical activity. Loss of appetite
and aversion to eating may also have psychological
causes, including depression. Chronic diseases and
use of certain medicines interfere with appetite and
nutrition. Lack of knowledge about healthy feeding
habits and the absence of helping hands to cook or
serve food in an attractive way are significant causes
of under-nutrition in the elderly. Last but not least
is the loss of purchasing power to buy the right kind
of food. All these factors need to be kept in mind in
planning diets for the elderly. Moreover, expert suggestion
alone does not usually suffice. One needs to
experiment with different type of foods to determine
which combination suits one best.
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Prabuddha Bharata
Exercise
Medical experts suggest that ‘physical exercise
may be the closest thing to the fountain of youth
available. It improves overall health and appearance.
It can maintain some of the body’s functions
that decline with aging. It can even restore some
functions that have already declined. In addition,
people who exercise—regardless of how much they
weigh, whether they smoke, or whether they have
a disorder—tend to live longer than those who do
not exercise.’ A physically active lifestyle provides
benefits throughout one’s lifespan.
One is never too old to start exercising. Concerns
about underlying diseases, aches and pains,
physical incapacity, and risk of injury are usually
unfounded. These obstacles can not only be
overcome but can actually be reduced with exercise.
Those who are in poor physical condition can
benefit by simply increasing the duration of their
regular household activities and physical recreation.
Walking and climbing stairs—avoiding elevators—
are uncomplicated exercises. Exercise programmes
should begin with less vigorous routines spanning
short durations. Even when intensity and duration
are increased, the elderly need to be careful
not to become so breathless as to sweat profusely
or be unable to talk comfortably. Warming up—
doing the same movements as the exercise but less
vigorously—before exercise and cooling down, or
slowing down gradually at the end of exercise, help
prevent injury. Thirty minutes of exercise, at least
thrice a week, provides significant benefits.
Endurance, Strengthening, and Stretching
· Exercise schedules should optimally involve
both aerobic and anaerobic components. The
former includes walking, running, cycling, and
swimming, and improves endurance. The latter, involving
contracting muscles against resistance for
up to six seconds at a time, helps increase muscle
bulk and strength as well as bone density. Stretching
lengthens muscles and tendons, thereby improving
flexibility and reducing the risk of injury.
It should be done only after warming up, preferably
daily. Each stretch may be held for five seconds to
begin with, slowly increasing to thirty seconds.
Yoga · This is a holistic health promoter that
improves physical as well as mental well-being and is
especially suited for the elderly. In recent years there
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has been a global resurgence of interest in yoga. New
institutes dedicated to yoga are being opened regularly
and people are becoming serious about practising
it. Many TV channels are dedicating significant
time to its practices. Aged people in yoga centres
are a common sight today. Thousands enrol when
reputed yoga teachers visit their cities and towns. In
their eminently readable book Retired but Not Tired,
B K Trehan and Indu Trehan observe:
Yoga is one of the most effective ways of achieving
this harmony [with our physical, mental, and spiritual
selves]. Yoga keeps us healthy and happy in a
number of ways. It lowers high blood pressure, and
raises the same, if it is low. Yoga takes care of obesity,
diabetes, arthritis, kidney disorders, sexual dysfunction,
asthma, common cough and cold and
several other serious ailments. Yoga can relieve you
from stress, anxiety and insomnia. Yoga increases
your awareness. Our minds become more alert
and clear. Yoga improves our inter-personal relationships
and dealings with people. We will have
more physical, mental and spiritual energy. Our
perspective on life changes. We become calmer, regardless
of circumstances. Yoga sharpens our inner
faculties so that we can discriminate between what
is right for us, and what is not. With yoga we learn
discipline, our life changes for the better and we
discover the joy of living.
A programme of simple yogic postures, asanas—
Vajrasana, Tadasana, Trikonasana, Bhujangasana,
Shalabhasana, Pavanamuktasana, Gomukhasana,
Ardha-matsyendrasana, Matsyasana, Marjarasana,
Hastapadottanasana, Shashakasana, and the like; the
comprehensive Suryanamaskara; simple pranayama
like Bhastrika, Anuloma-viloma, Kapala-bhati, Ujjayi,
and Bhramari; and meditation can profoundly affect
one’s being for good. However, it is important that
yoga be learnt from a competent teacher.
Social Dimensions of Health
The problems of old age are not merely physical.
Mental depression, the feeling of being left out, of
isolation, is common in old age and is a source of
great distress. People who were busy and involved
in work for long years suddenly feel unwanted and
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Healthy Aging 41
rejected after retirement. This is especially true of
senior executives who, after being used to having
people take directions, find the relative obscurity
of retirement—now they may not even be offered
a chair if they visit their former offices—terribly
damaging to their self-esteem. Given a choice, they
would like to go back to work with similar responsibilities,
not for any financial gain, but just to be
able to play an active role in society. This is the case
of the strong ego failing to refashion itself, blind
to a different set of opportunities and responsibilities
now available, which, if used humbly and judiciously,
would open a new phase of life.
Financial security is very important in old age,
although the financial freedom to do and have all
that one wants is unrealistic for most elderly. As
the Trehans point out: ‘Though each retirement
case may be different, they all follow the same basic
principle of finance management—balancing liabilities
against assets. That is what every retiree has to
do: take stock of his expenses, liabilities, needs, and
responsibilities versus income, assets, and resources,
and strike a balance between the two.’ Insurance
cover, savings, and judicious investments are all important
aspects of financial security in old age.
But satisfaction in old age is determined more
by social adaptation than by physical capabilities or
financial security. Older people who are well integrated
with their communities have little concern
for age. For them their later years mean a new state
of mind, a new opportunity to do things that they
always wanted to do but could not because of time
constraints. ‘Studies have shown that people who
remain active and who interact with other people
during old age live longer, happier, healthier lives.
Volunteering, taking classes, joining social groups,
engaging in hobbies, and pursuing some type of
spiritual or religious practice are all ways of staying
connected. Even people who are confined to
their homes because of illness can stay connected
by having others visit them or by communicating
over the telephone or by electronic mail.’
Whatever be the case, at some point in life aged
humans have to let go of attachments. There will
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42
Some Health Effects of Meditation
Following are some of the common effects, feelings, or
experiences of meditation. To what extent you experience
or feel these effects depends on the state of your
mind, type and duration of your meditation practice,
and the skill achieved in it.
• Meditation brings a sense of relaxation and peacefulness.
It controls anger and short temper of which most
people are victims in today’s stressful environment.
• Concentration improves. You are able to do your work
more efficiently and skilfully.
• A concentrated mind brings to surface many new and
innovative ideas. You may visualize answers to some of
your intricate problems while you are meditating.
• You settle down to deeper levels of quietness and
awareness.
• You experience an increased sense of compassion,
care, and concern for others.
• You feel a greater sense of purpose in life.
• You start appreciating the hand of God in the universe,
especially in the beauty and harmony of nature.
• You begin responding to an inner desire to do the
right things for their own sake rather than under legal
or moral compulsion.
—Adapted from Retired but Not Tired, 199
be times when they will have to be ready to subdue
their egos. And when the ego is attenuated, there is
great happiness derived from the insights of spiritual
living. The elderly may take shelter in books, in spiritual
thought and practices, or in rituals. There are
old ladies who spend virtually their entire day happily
with Gopala, baby Krishna—bathing, dressing,
and feeding him and meeting his playful demands.
If otherwise undisturbed, the elderly, especially
those with significant physical limitations, have to
learn to live with themselves or with God. This may
be the best preparation for the final departure.
Aged people of today have made significant contributions
in building the society in which we live.
Society, in turn, must be committed to caring for
their health and well-being. A number of governmental
as well as non-governmental agencies are
290
Prabuddha Bharata
presently working in this area. ‘A Society for All
Ages’, the theme of the ‘International Year of Older
Persons–1999’ helped to advance awareness, research,
and policy action worldwide.
In India a ‘National Policy on Older Persons’,
addressing the welfare and care of older people, was
adopted in 1999 and was backed by the ninth fiveyear
plan (1997–2002). Financial security, health
care, nutritional support, and supplementation of
care provided by the family form the principal areas
for intervention and strategic action. Under this
scheme, financial assistance was provided to ngos
for establishing and running old-age homes, daycare
centres, mobile medical care units, and home
services for older persons. Special effort was made
to strengthen the partnership between the young
and the old. A collaborative project involving the
Nehru Yuvak Kendra Sangathan to start day-care
centres for the elderly was part of this programme.
It is important that the helpless and isolated among
the elderly be made aware of these facilities.
From what we have discussed it seems apparent
that if one has adequate financial security,
assured medical services, adequate nutrition, moderately
good health, a comfortable home, and a caring
community, one can experience a happy and
healthy aging. These requirements are not impossible
to achieve if one plans one’s life and regulates
one’s lifestyle rightly from young age. However, this
‘ trying-to-stay-well’ concept still lacks something—
the ability to accept death gracefully, no matter how
it comes. It is difficult to attain this state; one has to
evolve into a right state of mind—a sense of contentment
with the life spent and a feeling of detachment
from it. For most people in India a spiritual
environment can help achieve this. For a few others
an intellectual atmosphere or an opportunity for
philanthropic activity may be more important. For
the former group a place like an ashrama in the Indian
tradition—where a spiritual guru helps create
the right environment—may be suitable. For the
other an association of like-minded people is necessary.
People caring for the elderly need to ensure
that both these facilities are developed. P
PB April 2009

Japanese Approach
to the Elderly
Prof. Tsuyoshi Nara
The World Health Organization classifies
people between 65 and 74 years of age as ‘young
old’ and those over 74 as ‘old old’. The Japanese
government follows this definition and calls the
first group zenki-koureisha, elderly people of the
early period, and the second group kouki-koureisha,
elderly people of the late period. Earlier Japanese
societies used the word roujin, old person, or toshiyori,
aged person, for those who were retired from
public working life or whose children were living
in their own separate households. If more than 7%
of the population of a society comprises old people
then that is considered ‘an aging society’; when that
figure exceeds 14%, it is called ‘an aged society’.
The Japanese Aged
In 1920 people above 64 years of age constituted
5.3% of the total Japanese population, a figure that
did not change significantly until 1955. During my
childhood—1930s—the average lifespan of a Japanese
was around 50 years. My own father passed
away at the age of 51 and my mother at 52, both
due to diseases. However, the proportion of the
elderly increased to 7.1% by 1970 and to 11.2% by
1988. Japanese society became a true aged society in
1994, when the percentage of elderly people reached
15.9%. This proportion is expected to climb to 20%
by 2010 and stabilize at 23.6% in 2020.
The life dream of the average Japanese citizen
in modern society used to be a long and materially
luxurious life with lasting physical youth. Fortunately,
the luxurious lifestyle has been a reality
since the 1980s, when the Japanese nation became
a so-called world economic giant, second only to
PB April 2009
Eight Taoist Immortals, by Tanu Buncho, 1803
the US. But eternal youth and long life are yet to
be realized, although the average lifespan in Japan
is now the longest in the world.
According to a post-war demographic survey
carried out by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour,
and Welfare, and supported by researches on
average longevity of major advanced nations undertaken
by the Institute of Social Security and Population
Problem in Japan, the average Japanese lifespan
in 1950 was 58 years for males and 62 years for females.
These figures indicate that Japanese lifespan
291

44
Yoroboshi, ‘The Beggar Monk’, by Shimomura Kazan, 1915
Prabuddha Bharata
was the shortest among all advanced nations in
1950. Since then, however, the average Japanese has
been living longer year after year, and reached the
longest lifespan in the world: 72 years for men in
1977 and 79 years for women in 1979. Subsequently,
Japan maintained that position for two decades.
In 2007 Japan dropped to the third place in male
longevity—79.19 years—behind Iceland and Hong
Kong—though the female longevity of 85.99 years
in Japan is still the world’s highest.
The number of centenarians in Japan increased
from 153 in 1963 to 1,072 in 1981, soared to 10,158
in 1998, and then tripled again to 36,276 in 2008.
The vast majority of people above 100 years of age
are women, a proportion that seems to have remained
quite steady over time at 85% women and
only 15% men.
The short Japanese lifespan before the end of
World War II was partly due to high infant mortality,
attributable to malnutrition, but largely the
result of massive casualties among Japanese military
personnel and the civilian holocaust resulting
from US military attacks, including the two atomic
bombings. After the war, the gradual improvement
of nutrition and sanitary conditions for infants as
well as adults and absolutely warless safe conditions
have contributed to lengthening Japanese lifespan.
The introduction of a full lunchtime meal system
for all schoolchildren throughout Japan was also an
important factor in improving health and lifespan.
A compulsory national health insurance scheme
that includes: (i) improved public health through
periodic general health checks, and (ii) free or subsidized
advanced medical treatment also contributed
to Japanese longevity. Dr Takuji Shirasawa,
director of general research at the Institute for the
Elderly, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, studied
the lives of those living more than a century, and
reached the conclusion that the span of human
life is determined partly (25%) by genes but mostly
(75%) by lifestyle.
The lifestyle factors influencing longevity, as
identified by Dr Shirasawa, are: (i) eating habits,
(ii) physical exercise, and (iii) way of thinking and
feeling. Of these, he says, the most important is the
first one. Many specialists on aging have focused on
controlling the intake of active oxygen and free radicals
when preparing any healthy menu for the elderly.
They recommend plenty of organic vegetables
and fruits, along with a minimum of fish or meat.
It goes without saying that moderate physical
exercise also helps a person maintain good health.
A similar effect can be expected for one who always
maintains a positive way of thinking and feeling.
Saburou Shouchi, who at 102 years is still active as
the director of Shii-no-mi School for handicapped
children, has been conducting overseas lecture tours
to many educational institutions since he turned 95.
Whenever he delivers a lecture, he makes it a point
to recommend his audiences to think and act positively,
and to keep big smiles. He always emphasizes
the importance of mothers affectionately touching
their children’s skin during the first three years of
life. The effect on human longevity of smiling and
keeping a sense of humour are also endorsed by Dr
Thomas T Pearls, specialist in centenarian studies
at Boston University School of Medicine.
As the majority of Japanese workers, irrespective
of the nature of their job, are actually fond of
working, they are often made
fun of as belonging to ‘a nation
of workaholics’. And rightly so;
most of them cannot enjoy retirement
if they have no work
to do. They cannot just sit idle
at home. Therefore, some go as
senior volunteers to developing
countries to impart technical
PB April 2009

know-how or management skills to local workers
or farmers—they are sent by institutions like the
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) or
the Organization for Industrial, Spiritual, and Cultural
Advancement International (OISCA).
Some well-off elderly make frequent trips abroad
to visit world heritage sites and other tourist destinations.
But most middle-class elderly spend their free
time attending cultural schools or lectures, generally
for: (i) composing Japanese poetry such as haiku
(in 17 syllables) or tanka (in 31 syllables), (ii) learning
flower arrangement and bonsai, (iii) practising
calligraphy, (iv) doing sumi-e—Japanese-ink drawings—or
oil paintings, (v) making Japanese dolls or
Buddha images, (vi) choral singing, (vii) playing a
Japanese musical instrument called Taisho lyre, (viii)
pursuing Japanese or Hawaiian dance, (ix) visiting
a park or other open space to play gate-ball—Japanese
croquet—devised especially for elderly players,
(x) touring hot springs, and (xi) making a pilgrimage
to the Eighty-Eight Holy Places on Shikoku Island.
These are the most common options, though
of course there are many more.
The Other Face of Aging in Japan
The above description of demographic changes
among the Japanese elderly may give non-Japanese
readers an impression of Japanese society as ideal
or a kind of paradise. In fact, long lifespan is only
half of the Japanese reality. One must also take into
account the other half, the pathetic and painful aspects
of being old in Japanese society.
Before the war it was common for a Japanese
household to comprise three generations. Parents,
the eldest son and his wife, and their children; all
used to live together in the same house. According
to the tradition, the eldest son was to inherit his
parents’ property, including money, house, land,
and the rest. In return, he had to remain with his
parents, caring for them until they passed away.
Meanwhile, other sons or daughters were expected
to leave and start their own households.
After the war this tradition changed drastically.
Today, when sons or daughters marry, they leave
PB April 2009
Japanese Approach to the Elderly
their parents’ house and take up
residence in different locations.
The reason for this drastic social
change can be attributed
to an amendment of the
Civil Law Act that abolished
the right of primogeniture
and introduced
equal right of inheritance,
a step taken by US occupation
authorities seeking
to revise the Japanese constitution.
As a result of this
legal amendment, few children
are inclined to take responsibility
for the welfare of their
aged parents.
We can confirm this situation
by glancing at the ‘Fundamental
Inquiry on National Life’, carried
out by the Japanese Government
in 2000:
Self-portrait, by Katsushika
Hokusai, 1839 (sumi-e painting)
• Households having an elderly member:
15,657,000—34.4% of total households.
• Households consisting of an elderly couple:
4,234,000—27.1% of total households with elderly
persons.
• Households consisting of three generations:
4,141,000—26.5% of total households with elderly
persons.
• Households consisting of a single elderly person:
3,079,000—19.7% of total households with
elderly persons.
It is a pity that the number of aged people dying
alone and unattended is increasing year after year.
In Tokyo 2,718 single elderly persons passed away
during 2004 alone. These days it is common in Japanese
society for an aged husband and wife to care
for each other without depending on their children.
If one of them happens to become disabled, the
other has to support him or her with the help of
a son or daughter living nearby or of a healthcare
professional. If both become disabled, admission
into a nursing home is the only alternative.
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46
At present approximately 400,000 disabled elderly
persons are living in nursing homes run by the
government. But there are another 382,000 persons
waiting to be admitted into such homes. Though
there are many non-governmental nursing homes,
the admission fee—10 to 20 million yen (about 5.3
to 10.6 million rupees)—and monthly boarding
charges are too high for the ordinary elderly, subsisting
on savings and pension, to afford. Some among
those on the waiting list become impatient and go
to less expensive nursing homes abroad, for example
to the Philippines.
It is also alarming to observe the increasing
number of elderly who are unable to cope with living
alone and end up committing suicide. Most
of them have lost their spouse or children and do
not want to trouble other relatives. The number
of elderly suicides rose to 12,107 in 2007, which
represented 33.7% of all Japanese suicides during
that year. As the elderly become disabled, they have
to depend upon either their children or voluntary
or professional caregivers. If the children are engaged
in regular work or service, it may not be possible
for them to properly look after their parents
or parents-in-law, even if they are willing to do so.
Therefore, the services of voluntary or professional
caregivers are unavoidable and increasingly in demand.
Given this social necessity, many young and
recently retired people are coming forward to train
as qualified professional caregivers. Furthermore,
many governmental and non-governmental organizations
have been established to provide qualified
care to any elderly person who needs such help and
is willing and able to pay for it.
Unfortunately, the remuneration for such services—irregular
and difficult as they are—is not
sufficient for maintaining a family or even for one’s
own expenses. This phenomenon is caused partly
by governmental undervaluing of caregiver labour
and partly by the malpractices of some temporary
staffing agencies that exploit caregivers. As a result,
the number of caregivers has been rapidly decreasing
of late despite increasing demand for such services
from the helpless elderly. To fill up this gap
294
Prabuddha Bharata
the Japanese government has recently brought a
few hundred ‘caregiver candidates’ from the Philippines
and Indonesia. Their contracts are for four
years and within that time they are required to become
qualified as professional caregivers by passing
a national examination in Japan. This is a tough
trial, and we must wait four years to see whether
this effort will prove a success.
Whenever we discuss the issue of elderly in Japanese
society we should keep in mind that the majority
of elderly Japanese no longer desire a long
life. They would prefer to live healthy and happy,
even if not for long. They wish to pass away from
this mundane world without giving any trouble to
others, whoever they may be. They think it a shame
to trouble others or depend on mercy or charity.
They wish to maintain a sense of self-respect rather
than lose face by drawing attention and care associated
with pity. In Japan, several Buddhist temples
have installed the image of Yome-raku-kannon,
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshwara, whose function is
to make a daughter-in-law’s life easy and comfortable.
Here ‘to make a daughter-in-law’s life easy’
implies that the elderly person wants to maintain
his or her pride and dignity by not depending on
a daughter-in-law’s care. This Bodhisattva is very
popular among the elderly and particularly draws
aged female worshippers who are keen to die suddenly
without suffering from any disease. They want
to preserve their good health so that they can avoid
depending upon their daughter-in-law’s nursing.
In order to honour these wishes of the elderly,
one should always take special care to avoid such
language or gesture as may hurt their sense of pride
and dignity. For instance, the aged Japanese prefer
to be addressed as oji-san, uncle, rather than ojii-san,
grandfather or grandpa, or as oba-san, aunty, rather
than obaa-san, grandmother or grandma. Elderly
women, in particular, will be happier to be called
oku-sama, madam, rather than oba-san or obaa-san.
Most importantly, when attending to or assisting
disabled elderly people, one should treat them not
as children but as dignified adults.
(Continued on page 300)
PB April 2009

Worship of God as Mother
in the Indian Tradition
Swami Satyasthananda
(Continued from the previous issue)
In the Tantras
The conception of God as Divine Mother attained
its fullest flowering at the hands of the
Shakta followers of Hinduism. They not only
developed the elaborate forms and rituals connected
with Shakti-worship, but also gave a profound
philosophical basis to their faith and practice.
The vast Tantra literature represents not only the
various cults and ritualistic practices of Shaktism
but also its religious ideology and philosophy. It
would not be incorrect to say that in Shaktism
Mother-worship attained its culmination.
According to the Shakta philosophy enshrined
in the Tantras, the ultimate Reality as pure unchanging
Consciousness is called Shiva, and its
power, appearing as the flux of mind and matter in
Creation is known as Shakti—the Cosmic Power
or Primordial Energy. Shiva is pure Being, devoid
of all relativity. Shakti is the active Personal Being
and includes all individual souls. The opening
verse of the Saundaryalahari reads: ‘Shiva, when
he is united with Shakti, is able to create; otherwise
he is unable even to move.’ Shiva and Shakti
have been described as prakāśa, light, and vimarśa,
reflection. The first semblance of relationship appearing
within the Absolute is termed vimarśa; this
is the source of the world of distinctions. Vimarśa
or Shakti is the power latent in the Absolute, the
pure Consciousness.
Shakti is the Absolute personified, Consciousness
that becomes a subject and also passes over
into its opposite, the non-self or the object. If Shiva
is cit, Consciousness, Shakti is citi-śakti, the formative
energy of consciousness. Brahma, Vishnu,
and Shiva perform their respective functions of
PB April 2009
Durga
Mahishasuramardini,
picture of the
Guler School
by an unknown
artist of the
early 18th
century
creat ion, pre servation, and destruction in obedience
to Shakti. In the perfect experience of ananda,
Shiva and Shakti are indistinguishable; the two
coalesce into one Being. Shiva answers to the indeterminate
Brahman in a state of quiescence; Shakti
is determinate Brahman—endowed with icchā, will,
jñāna, knowledge, and kriyā, action—that projects
the whole objective universe. Shiva and Shakti
are one, since power is inherent in existence. But
though they are identical, there is an apparent difference
between them from the phenomenal standpoint.
Brahman in its trans cendental aspect does
not change, but as Shakti, it does. This Shakti or
Primordial Energy goes forth in a series of emanations
which the Tantras term tattvas, of which
thirty-six are described.
The Tantras also speak of three states of the Divine
Mother: (i) parā, the transcendental, which is
beyond mental categories; (ii) sūkṣmā, the subtle,
which is embodied in the mantra; and (iii) sthūlā,
or gross, which is the form she takes to guide and
help devotees who worship her and meditate upon
her. The Divine Mother can assume various forms to
meet the spiritual needs of devotees. The Mahavidyas
are ten such forms, each with distinctive attributes.
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48
Prabuddha Bharata
The Ten Mahavidyas
• Kali, also called Shyama, is three-eyed, dark- • Bhairavihasaredcomplexion,sportsagarland
complexioned,fierce,andirascible.Shesportsagarland ofseveredheads,andholdsarosaryandabookintwo
ofdecapitatedhumanheadsandagirdleofsevered ofherfourhands,theothertwobestowingboonsand
hands,andholdsadecapitatedheadandabloodied fearlessness. Siddha-bhairavi,Tripura-bhairavi, and
cleaverintwoofherhands,whiletheothertwoarms Bhuvaneshwara-bhairaviaresomeoftheothernames
gesturebestowalofboonsandfearlessness.Sheisgiven ofthisdeity.SheisassociatedwithBatuk-bhairavaas
manyotherepithetsaccordingtothepredominanceof herconsort.
certainattributes:Smashana-kalidwellsincremation • Chhinnamasta stands naked in the cremation
grounds,Raksha-kaliguardsagainstfamineandepi-
groundwithablood-stainedscimitarinonehandand
demics,Bhadra-kaliisherbenignformthatcanbewor-
shippedinhomes,Guhya-kaliandSiddha-kaliareobjects ingfromherheadlesstrunk—intheother.
herownseveredhead—drinkingthewarmbloodgush-
ofadorationforadvancedpractitionersofTantricdisciplines,andMaha-kaliisthecosmicformofthedeitytulous,querulouswidow,withdishevelledhairanddirty
• Dhumavatiisvisualizedasapale,tall,elderly,eden-
• Tara,asdescribedinthecontextoftheMahavidyas, clothes.Afflictedwithhunger,sheholdsawinnowing
ismuchlikeKali.Sheisdark,short,andlarge-bellied, basketinherhandandisseenastrideacrow.
wearsatigerskinandanecklace
• Bagalaisgoldenhuedwith
ofseveredheads,sportsherhair
theheadofacrane.Seatedon
inasinglebraid,andstandsupon
a lotus she has a noose and
aburningpyre.Herworshipwas
a thunderbolt in two of her
especiallypopularinKashmir.She
hands.Sheholdsanenemyby
isalsoreveredasanimportant
thetonguewhilechastisinghim
deity—insuchformsasSita-tara,
with a club. According to the
Shyama-tara,Pita-tara,Nila-tara,
Sammohana Tantra she manifestedherselfneartheHaridra
andKhadiravani-tara—inMahayanaBuddhism.
LakeinSaurashtra,inresponse
• Shodashiisthebenignform
to Vishnu’s penance to help
of the Devi—a beautiful girl of
quellastormthatthreatened
sixteenwitharuddycomplexion,
todestroytheworlds.
worshippedfromKashmirtoKerala.InherthedivinepowerreachedfestedonearthwhentheDevi
• MatangiorSumukhi,mani-
itsfullness.Hernamesignifiesthis
was propitiated by Rishi Matanga,accordingtotheBrahma
fullnessofbeautyandgrandeur—
muchlikethefullmoondisplaying
allitssixteenparts.Becauseofher
beautyandgrandeursheisalsoknownasTripurasundari
andRajarajeshwari.Nearlyfiftyformsareattributedto
her,whichshowsherwidepopularity.
• BhuvaneshwariisanotherbenignformoftheDevi.
Hersattvicnatureisreflectedinherbrightcomplexion.
Hercontroloftheelementsisrepresentedbythenoose
andgoadthatsheholds,andhergracebythefruitin
herhand.
296
The Goddess Kali, by Richard B Godfrey, 1770 Yamala. Dark coloured, she is
seenseatedonanornamented
throne,hasthecrescentmoononherforeheadand
wieldsanoose,agoad,asword,andashieldineach
ofherfourarms.
• Kamalaisthegoddessofprosperity—andisthus
amanifestationofLakshmi.Sheisgolden-huedand
exquisitelybeautifulandisdescribedasseatedona
redlotus,holdinglotusesinherhands,andattendedby
elephantspouringoutpitcherfulsofwateroverher.
PB April 2009

PB April 2009
Worship of God as Mother in the Indian Tradition 49
The worship of Shakti is classified under two
main heads: paśvācāra and vīrācāra. Different spiritual
exercises are prescribed by the Tantras for different
groups of aspirants. Paśvācāra is the code of
conduct for aspirants with marked inertia and ignorance,
and vīrācāra for comparatively advanced
votaries with significant ambition and energy.
The Kularnava Tantra gives a more elaborate
classification of Tantric practice: (i) vedācāra,
(ii) vaiṣṇavācāra, (iii) śaivācāra, (iv) dakṣiṇācāra,
(v) vāmācāra, (vi) siddhāntācāra, (vii) kaulācāra.
Each successive stage represents a more advanced
practice—the kaulācara being the culmination
of Tantric discipline. The first three stages comprise
paśvācāra, the two next virācāra, while the
two final stages represent divyācāra, the state of
the siddha or adept. Vedācāra lays stress on the cultivation
of cleanliness of body and mind. Aspirants
in this stage are to rise early in the morning—two
hours before sunrise—and practise meditation
and prayer. They should honour the spiritual
guide with prostrations, practise japa of the Divine
Mother’s mantra, meditate on her as seated on the
thousand-petalled lotus in the crown of the head,
worship her with the prescribed accessories, and
contemplate the Supreme Power with undivided
attention. Purity is the watchword of vaiṣṇavācāra.
It lays stress on cultivation of devotion and vigilance
in performance of one’s duties. Aspirants in
this stage are to practise continence in thought,
word, and deed and give up jealousy and hypocrisy.
Śaivācāra emphasizes cultivation of jnana, besides
the primary disciplines of the earlier stages.
Dakṣiṇācāra aims at consolidating the gains of the
three preceding stages. In this stage the sadhaka
practises worship of the Divine Mother with offerings
and meditation on her divine form in the dead
of night. With vāmācāra begins the more difficult
practice of renunciation in the midst of objects of
enjoyment. In this stage the guru introduces the
sadhaka to esoteric practices involving flesh, wine,
and women as objects of veneration. Siddhāntācāra
involves devoted worship of the Divine Mother at
night with offerings purified by the mystic power
of mantras. By this means even objects previously
considered impure may now be offered to the Divine
Mother. It is in this stage that the aspirant arrives
at a definitive understanding of the relative
merits of the paths of enjoyment and renunciation.
Kaulācāra is the stage when the Divine Mother or
Brahman becomes a reality to the aspirant. The
kaula, as the aspirant is now called, can worship
the Divine Mother without consideration of time,
place, or ritualistic details. Kaulas often behave in
peculiar ways. At times they may appear insane, at
other times ghoulish—their diverse divine moods
manifesting through weeping, laughter, singing,
and dancing. Established in same-sightedness, they
view clay and sandal paste, friend and enemy, palaces
and burning ghats, money and grass as being
the same. They are so immersed in the thought of
the Divine Mother that other objects and thoughts
have no place in their minds.
Shakta theory and practice are closely associated
with the mystical dimensions of yoga. The deep
study of the power of sound as manifest in sacred
syllables and mantras is an important contribution
of the Shakta system. Śabda, the eternal Word, is
none other than Shakti. It manifests the objective
world through its primal creative momenta termed
nāda, bindu, and bīja. Every letter of the alphabet
is imbued with the power of Shakti; and mantras—words
or phrases framed from these letters
in accordance with their inner powers—are important
means for accessing Shakti. Every mantra is a
divine creation, and the whole body of mantras is
identical with Shakti.
Tantra also tells us that within the human frame
there are numerous subtle channels of power called
nāḍīs. The most important of these is the suṣumṇā,
spanning the spinal column from the sacral plexus
to the crown of the head. Along the suṣumṇā are
important centres of power called cakras, represented
by mystical lotuses. The first of these, the
mūlādhāra, is at the base of the spine. It houses the
dormant Shakti called kundalini, coiled round the
primordial linga, representing Brahman, like a serpent.
Shakta yogic practices activate the kundalini
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50
and induce it to ascend through the suṣumṇā. As
the kundalini passes through each of the cakras it
provides the sadhaka with unique spiritual experiences
and powers.
The Shaktas have also developed the use of mystical
diagrams—yantras or maṇḍalas, often engraved
on metal plates—ritual gestures or mudrās,
and ritual procedures for sacralization of the
human body, nyāsa, using mystic syllables called
bīja. Each of the deities worshipped by the Shaktas
has an associated yantra, which is usually placed
in the centre of a lotus-diagram with the bīja of
the particular goddess inscribed a certain number
of times on each petal. The Sri-cakra is one such
yantra representing the orb of the earth, the nine
triangles within it denoting the nine continents. In
the centre is the dot or bindu representing Shakti
as presiding over the cakra. These yantras are as efficacious
in manifesting the deities as mantras. To
the Tantric, the consecrated yantra is none other
than the deity itself.
Great Worshippers
of the Divine Mother
From its very beginnings Hindu civilization has
given birth to great men and women devoted to
the Divine Mother. Sri Rama worshipped Devi
Durga on the eve of his fight with Ravana. Rukmini
worshipped Durga and sought her blessings
for her marriage with Sri Krishna. Shankaracharya,
the great Advaitic philosopher-saint, is well known
not only for his commentaries on Advaitic texts,
but also for his soul-stirring devotional hymns to
the various gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon.
He composed several hymns in praise of the
Divine Mother and also installed the images of the
goddesses Kamakshi and Sarada at Kanchipuram
and Sringeri. His lucid exposition of the concept
of Shakti is manifest in his hymns:
298
Śivaḥ śaktyā yukto yadi bhavati
śaktaḥ prabhavituṁ
na cedevaṁ devo na khalu kuśalaḥ
spanditum-api;
Prabuddha Bharata
Atas-tvām-ārādhyāṁ hari-haraviriñcādibhir-api
praṇantuṁ stotuṁ vā
katham-akṛta-puṇyaḥ prabhavati.
Shiva is able to project this universe only if he is
united with Shakti, otherwise the Deva is not even
capable of moving. Therefore, how can those who
have done no meritorious deeds ever strive either
to worship or praise you who are worshipped even
by Hari, Hara, Brahma, and others?10
Bhavāni tvaṁ dāse
mayi vitara dṛṣṭiṁ sakaruṇāṁ
iti stotuṁ vāñchan
kathayati bhavāni tvam-iti yaḥ;
Tadaiva tvaṁ tasmai
diśasi nija-sāyujya-padavīṁ
mukunda-brahmendrasphuṭa-mukuṭa-nīrājita-padām.
To the devotee desirous of thus praying to you: ‘O
Bhavani, please cast your compassionate glance on
me, your servant’, even as he begins saying ‘O Bhavani’
you bestow on him sāyujya, union with your
feet—the sāyujya that is illumined by the crowns
of Vishnu, Brahma, and Indra (22).
In modern times Shakti worship has especially
flourished in east India. The songs of such Tantric
adepts as Ramprasad and Kamalakanta not only
reveal an exquisite poetic sense but also deep philosophical
insights about Tantric practices born of
their own realizations. This process reached its culmination
in Sri Ramakrishna, who showed how the
Divine Mother could become a living reality in our
lives, and also in Sri Sarada Devi, whose acceptance
of the fruits of Sri Ramakrishna’s sadhana in the
form of Devi Shodashi and the wonderful expression
of motherhood in her life show us how this
divine motherhood can actually manifest in human
form for the all-round uplift of society. In this sense
they represent the fulfilment of the worship of the
Divine Mother that has captured the Indian mind
for millennia.
P
Reference
10. Shankaracharya, Saundaryalahari, 1.
PB April 2009

Narada Bhakti Sutra
Swami Bhaskareswarananda
(Continued from the February issue)
39. Mahat-saṅgastu
durlabho’gamyo’moghaśca.
But the holy company of great souls is rare, incomprehensible,
and infallible.
Merely taking spiritual initiation, because
it is the custom, does not constitute
mahat-saṅga, holy company. It is
then simply a mechanical event. Hence, the sadhaka
must know the meaning of holy company.
Saṅga is not physical company. The sadhaka
must feel the transcendental spiritual personality
of the mahāpuruṣa, great soul. For this, one must
have receptivity, which develops through sadhana.
Narada says it is durlabha, extremely difficult to
obtain. First, realized personalities themselves are
rare. Second, their company or contact, saṅga, is
still more difficult to obtain. Going to them, bowing
down to them, and talking to them is not saṅga.
Saṅga is durlabha because it occurs when you are
fit to receive their grace. Only then will you realize
the greatness of a spiritual soul.
This is possible only when you rise above sense
enjoyment, are really hungry for spirituality, and
have a transcendental attitude. The transcendental
beauty of spiritual personalities lies in their being absolutely
unidentified with the world and completely
identified with the absolute Reality. If you can feel
this transcendental beauty through your vairāgya,
then will saṅga have its effect on your personality.
If you surrender absolutely to such a soul, then will
contact or saṅga take place, because his personality
The text comprises the edited notes of Swami
Bhaskareswarananda’s classes on the Narada Bhakti
Sutra, taken down by some residents of the Ramakrishna
Math, Nagpur. The classes were conducted between
17 December 1965 and 24 January 1966.
PB April 2009
is transcendentally universal. We have seen many
cases of so-called saṅga without this receptivity ruining
the person concerned. Why did this happen?
Because of engaging in saṅga with one’s own ego,
likes and dislikes, and selfish interests.
True saṅga is agamya, for it is very difficult to
appreciate the personality of great souls. There is
no outward change in their appearance; only their
consciousness changes. If your saṅga is real and
genuine, its effect will be infallible, amogha. There
is no question of ‘whether or not’; have infinite
faith in the personality and words of the preceptor.
We get an excellent example of this in Swami
Vivekananda. See how he ran to Sri Ramakrishna;
this shows his vairāgya, his thirst for samadhi. Look
at his faith in the Master, his surrender to him, and
his pursuit of the Master’s teachings. Finally, he
entered into samadhi by Sri Ramakrishna’s grace.
40. Labhyate’pi tat-kṛpayaiva.
It is obtained by their grace alone.
The sadhaka may get depressed thinking that if holy
company is durlabha he may not get the grace of
great men or God. Narada says that if you fulfil
the conditions then you will get it by the grace of
the Lord. Divine grace will respond to your sincerity.
This is the story in the spiritual world. Divinity,
which is your real nature, responds to your
sincere spiritual quest in the form of holy company,
mahat-saṅga.
41. Tasmiṁstajjane bhedābhāvāt.
Because there is no difference between God
and his devotees.
The mahāpuruṣa does not belong to this objective
world. He always remains attuned to the absolute
Reality. There is no bheda, difference, between him
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52
and the absolute Reality. Hence, if your spiritual
quest is sincere, you will never be deprived of the
grace of the Lord through the mahāpuruṣa.
Prabuddha Bharata
After describing ideal bhakti, parā-bhakti, and
the conditions for it, Narada tells us the negative
and positive sadhanas. Then he says that all this
will be successful if you surrender completely to a
mahāpuruṣa who is none other than God himself
in living form. Now Narada takes up a very practical
issue. A sadhaka is after all a struggling aspirant and
has necessarily a combination of good and bad samskaras.
Narada warns that asat-saṅga or contact with
evil might be occurring unconsciously. Dussaṅga,
evil company, does not only mean the company of
drunkards or prostitutes; it implies any object or
circumstance that awakens bad samskaras. Any object—even
an inanimate one—any circumstance, or
any place which arouses evil instincts is dussaṇga.
Sarvathā, by all means, unconditionally and
uncompromisingly. Sri Ramakrishna rebuked
Narendra for discussing worldly matters with
Mahendranath Gupta, M. And he rebuked M too.
This uncompromising attitude was taught by Sri
Ramakrishna to his disciples.
You may say, ‘Everything is Narayana.’ In that
case, remember the story of the ‘elephant Narayana’
and the ‘mahout Narayana’ as told by Sri Ramakrishna.
You must be aware of the truth of Narayana
everywhere, but you must also beware of the
evil effects of bad association.
(To be continued)
42. Tadeva sādhyatāṁ tadeva sādhyatām.
Try for that—mahat-saṅga—alone.
Narada emphatically repeats sādhyatām, sādhyatām.
Do try to perform this main spiritual practice of
making yourself a fit recipient of grace. You may
carry out all the negative and positive practices, but
never forget that the human mind is very deceptive.
You may develop egotism and become a guru yourself.
So you must surrender yourself to a great soul.
Try to get attuned to his real personality through
self-surrender. This is so important that Narada has
made it a separate issue.
43. Dussaṅgaḥ sarvathaiva tyājyaḥ.
Evil company must be totally given up.
300
(Continued from page 284)
Dinner was over. My co-passenger turned jovial
again and started telling me some funny anecdotes
from his early life. References to his son were coming
back again and again, he looked happy now.
All the thoughts of old age, every statement about
Vanaprastha and death seemed meaningless in the
morning. In a short time the train would enter Victoria
Terminus. The smiling face of my grandson
on the platform would rekindle my passion for life,
and I would wish to live another hundred years. As
Swami Vivekananda says: ‘This is maya.’ P
(Continued from page 294)
Finally, all of us would do well to put in constant
effort to have as many close friends as possible
before we become old. Through regular social
service or personal care for others in need, we can
naturally attract many people who will feel thankful
to us, and in our last years we will find ourselves
surrounded by well-wishers more reliable than our
own relatives. A person who gives generously of
him- or herself will never be left alone and will pass
his or her last days attended with respect and love
by many friends or neighbours, if not by kin. A Japanese
proverb says, ‘tooku-no-shinrui yori chikakuno-tanin,
non-relatives living close are better than
relatives living far away’.
People in bric (Brazil, Russia, India, and
China) and other rapidly developing countries will
soon face situations similar to those now confronting
the Japanese elderly. While enjoying their material
luxury, they are likely to suffer from various
physical ailments and, possibly even more, from
emotional pain arising from inharmonious human
relationships. I hope they will learn valuable lessons
from both the positive and negative aspects of the
Japanese approach described in this article. P
PB April 2009

Girish and Sri Sarada Devi
Swami Chetanananda
(Continued from the previous issue)
Swami Bodhananda left a vivid account of
Girish’s visit to Jayrambati in 1891, which is
presented here in an abridged form: ‘Our
party consisted of Swami Niranjanananda, Swami
Subodhananda, Girish, Kanai [later Swami Nirbhayananda],
Kalikrishna [later Swami Virajananda], and
myself. Girish also took a cook and a servant with
him. After breakfast at Girish’s house we left for
Howrah railway station and then reached Burdwan
station at noon. We had our lunch there and bought
luchis, fried potatoes, halwa, and sweets for our supper,
and some special sweets to offer to the Master in
Kamarpukur. Five bullock carts were hired and we
started our journey just before evening. We crossed
the Damodar River, which was almost dry. After
crossing the river by bullock cart, we finished our
supper. At 10.00 p.m. we resumed our journey, but
shortly after the jerking motion of the cart upset
Girish’s stomach. We were then in the middle of
a vast meadow. Swami Niranjanananda stopped
all the carts and asked the drivers to unfasten the
bullocks from the carts. Within an hour Girish fell
asleep and then in the morning he felt normal.
‘We resumed our journey and reached Uchalan
(16 miles from Burdwan) at 10.00 a.m. We went to
an inn and had lunch. After resting we had tea. We
again bought luchis, fried potatoes, and halwa for
supper. The drivers drove the whole night, covering
sixteen miles from Uchalan to Kamarpukur. We arrived
there at 9.00 a.m. and met Brother Ramlal and
Sister Lakshmi, the Master’s nephew and niece. We
took a bath in the Haldarpukur, had the prasad of
Raghuvir, and spent the night at Kamarpukur. Next
morning we left for Jayrambati, which is four miles
from Kamarpukur. Girish went by palanquin and
the rest of us walked along the mud road. We arrived
in Jayrambati at 11.00 a.m. Girish took a bath in the
PB April 2009
Talpukur and went to visit the Holy Mother wearing
his wet cloth and carrying a mango in his hand.
He fell flat on the courtyard and bowed down to the
Mother. This scene is still vivid in my memory.
‘I had a great opportunity to associate closely with
Girish in Jayrambati. We lived in the same room;
we ate together, walked together, and talked freely.
When he was in the mood, he would sing some devotional
songs in praise of the Divine Mother.
‘Because of the many guests in Jayrambati, Holy
Mother was extremely busy from morning till 11.00
p.m. taking care of our food, sleeping arrangements,
and so on. Although Girish’s cook and servant worked,
the Mother had to supervise everything. It was not
easy to get milk early in the morning in Jayrambati,
but the Mother would go to the villagers and collect
some milk so that we could have tea. We had breakfast
with puffed rice, sandesh, and tea; and then after
a bath we had some prasad. Mother served lunch with
eight or nine kinds of preparations, as well as curd and
sweets. In the afternoon we had tea and snacks, and at
supper luchi, rice, vegetables, and sweets.
‘Girish would listen to the dialect of the illiterate
farmers and imitate their language. He considered
hiring a farmer and bringing him to Calcutta to act
in one of his plays. After staying for two weeks in
Jayrambati, everyone returned to Calcutta except
Swami Niranjanananda and Girish. The Mother
looked after us as her own children. I still remember
that I rolled chapatis a few times and the Mother
baked them. It was her grace that I could be near
her. Those are unforgettable memories!’ 3
Swami Nikhilananda, author of Holy Mother,
supplied some more information about Girish and
Holy Mother:
After bathing, Girish went to the Mother, his body
quaking with emotion. Casting his eyes upon
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54
302
her, he exclaimed with surprise: ‘Ah, you are that
Mother!’ He suddenly recalled a vivid dream of
many years before, when he had been bedridden
with a serious illness. A goddess appeared to him
and offered sacred prasād, which immediately
cured him. He now recognized Holy Mother as
that deity and felt that she had always been looking
after him as his guardian angel. He asked the
Mother: ‘What sort of Mother are you?’ At once
Holy Mother replied: ‘Your real Mother, not just
the wife of your guru, nor an adopted mother, nor
a vague mother. Your real Mother.’ 4
Girish spent a happy and carefree time at Jayrambati,
wandering about freely with the villagers
in the meadows and drinking in the beauty of the
sunset in the open fields. Soon his fame spread
throughout the area and he would sing now and
then to entertain the simple villagers. One day,
while Girish was singing for the villagers, Holy
Mother heard him singing this song:
Gopāla crawls off from the queen
Lest she should catch hold of him.
He casts at her a furtive glance.
As she eagerly cries, ‘Stop, stop!’
Gopāla crawls farther off (273).
One day at Jayrambati Girish had a heated
discussion with Kalikumar, one of the Mother’s
brothers, regarding whether Holy Mother was an
ordinary human being or a goddess. Kalikumar
naturally regarded her as his sister and said: ‘It is
you who call her the Divine Mother or the Mother
of the Universe. But we were born from the same
womb. I do not understand what you say.’ ‘What
are you talking about?’ replied Girish firmly. ‘You
are the son of an ordinary brāhmin, born and
reared in a village. You have forgotten the duties of
your caste, such as worship and study, and are now
living as a farmer. If a man promises you a bullock
for your plough, you will run after him for at least
six months. Is it not possible for Mahāmāyā, who
can make the impossible possible, to appear as your
sister and hoodwink you for the rest of your life?
Listen to me. If you want liberation in this life or
afterwards, go immediately to the Mother and take
Prabuddha Bharata
refuge at her feet. I urge you to go at once.’
Girish’s words always carried great power. Kalikumar
went to Holy Mother and clutched her feet,
begging for her grace. She said: ‘Kali, what are you
doing? I am your sister. What are you saying?’ Kalikumar
returned to Girish the same person he was
before. Girish asked him to go back, but he would
not. Girish once remarked that Holy Mother’s
brothers must have performed bone-breaking austerities
in a previous life to have obtained her as
their sister (123).
Holy Mother always wore a veil when she was
with the monastic disciples and male devotees
of the Master, except for Swamis Adbhutananda,
Advaitananda, and a few others. When Girish ate
his lunch at Jayrambati, the Mother would say to
him from behind her veil: ‘My son, please have a little
more rice. You will feel hungry if you eat such a
small amount of food.’ Girish was overwhelmed by
Holy Mother’s affection. Observing her shyness and
unwillingness to talk to her male devotees, Girish
once told her: ‘Mother, the Master has become a
chhabi [a picture] and you have become a bauma [a
bashful bride who wears a long veil].’ 5 Girish meant
that people now see the Master only in a picture, so
the Mother should not maintain so much distance
from and formality with her children.
Girish later recalled his days in Jayrambati:
‘What infinite affection did I see in the Mother!
She was my real mother. She kept her vigilant eyes
on every minute detail. One day in Jayrambati I saw
the Mother going to the pond with a piece of soap,
a bed sheet, and a pillow cover. When I went to bed
that night I found that my pillow cover and bed
sheet had been beautifully washed. Tears trickle
from my eyes when I think of her affection.’ 6
(To be continued)
References
3. Matridarshan, ed. Swami Chetanananda (Calcutta:
Udbodhan, 1990), 14–17.
4. Holy Mother, 272–3.
5. Swami Brahmanander Smritikatha, ed. Swami
Chetanananda (Calcutta: Udbodhan, 2003), 506.
6. Hemendra Nath Dasgupta, Sri Sri Ramakrishnadev
O Bhakta-Bhairav Girishchandra (Calcutta, 1953), 76.
PB April 2009

REVIEWS
For review in PRABUDDHA BHARATA,
publishers need to send two copies of their latest publications.
R
PB April 2009
The Brahma Kumaris
as a ‘Reflexive Tradition’
John Walliss
Motilal Banarsidass, 41 UA Bungalow
Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi 110 007. E-
mail: mlbd@vsnl.com. 2007. xiv +131 pp.
Rs 295.
eligious traditions are one of those social structures
humans create to fulfil their multifarious
needs. Over time, as with all structures, religious traditions
lose their following as they are seen inadequate
in addressing the changing needs of society. While
some traditions appear to doggedly cling to their existing
patterns, new movements spring up, supposedly
bringing solutions to the questions left unanswered
by the older traditions. While some New Religious
Movements (nrms) bring a refreshing change in religious
understanding and practice, some others differ
from the mainstream religiosity merely to appear
novel and more suited to contemporary society.
Engaged in a constant process of adapting themselves
to society, religious institutions have never been
completely traditional, and constant questioning
and rethinking have been integral to them. However,
trends of reassessing past traditions and the emergence
of new reflexive movements appear to be more
pronounced in these postmodern times of ours. Interestingly,
most of these new movements draw heavily
from the mainstream religiosity, both in their philosophy
and practice. For example, while many concepts
of mainstream Hinduism like Brahma, Vishnu,
and Lakshmi have been woven into the philosophy of
the Brahma Kumaris, concepts like raja yoga, kalpa,
and yuga have been radically reinterpreted.
nrms freely reinterpret established principles of
religion and supplement or complement them in
consonance with the contemporary drift of social
thought. For instance, if scientific spirit is dominating
the minds of people in a given period, nrms of
that period draw parallels to scientific developments
and resort to ‘name-dropping’ involving scientific
thinkers.
Evolved from his doctoral thesis, this timely book
by John Walliss is a sociological analysis of the reflexivity
of new religious movements and the extent
of their ‘detraditionalisation’. ‘Reflexivity’, in sociology,
refers to the application of social patterns to
the very institutions creating these patterns. Not
giving any definition of reflexivity himself, Walliss
tries to ‘advance and develop Philip Mellor’s notion
of “reflexive traditions” as a hermeneutic tool for
the examination of “post-traditional” spirituality’.
Through the example of the inner workings of the
Brahma Kumaris, also called Brahma Kumaris World
Spiritual University, Walliss brings out the typical
characteristics of an nrm. After discussing various
theories of reflexivity of traditions, he proceeds to
study Brahma Kumaris in the light of these theories.
In his charmingly candid style, he takes us through
an intricate study of the phenomenon of reflexive
traditions, which will undoubtedly enhance the
thought of students of sociology and religion.
Like other new religious movements, Brahma
Kumaris had to face severe social opposition before
becoming a socially acceptable institution. Consequently,
their outlook has become more accommodating
in contrast to an earlier isolation. The patterns
of the beneficiaries of this movement have been
minutely analysed to show the mixed nature of the
nrm’s following. Though the Brahma Kumaris may
not be a typical representative of nrms, striking similarities
to other such movements cannot be denied.
Being a millenarian movement, the Brahma Kumaris
have to constantly reinterpret their prophecies
and alter or postpone the time of the apocalypse.
These reinterpretations have led to inner strife in the
institution. Walliss brings forth such differences—
which are generally known to crop up amongst the
followers of nrms—by discussing the case of ‘Advance
Party’, a breakaway faction of the Brahma
Kumaris, and shows how such factions could themselves
be prey to the failings of their parent institution.
Concluding this remarkable work on religious
movements in the late modern era, Walliss maintains
that all religious traditions are reflexive and that the
303

56
forces of tradition and reflexivity are less dualistic
and more dynamic.
Swami Narasimhananda
Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata
304
So Far So Near
Amal Kumar Roy
alias Kinkar Krisnananda
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kulapati Munshi
Marg, Mumbai 400 007. E-mail:
brbhavan@bom7.vsnl.net.in. 2008. xviii
+ 165 pp. Rs 150.
This is the English version of the original Bengali
work Tad Dure Tadu Antike published in 2004.
The title is culled from the Isha Upanishad to signify
the immanence and transcendence of Sri Sitaramdas
Omkarnath’s being. The author had the privilege of
hearing directly from his master about four instances
of divine communion on the occasion of the master’s
eighty-ninth birthday celebrations at Mehsana.
These form the substance of the book, which has
been prefaced by Dr Karan Singh and carries an introduction
by the Dalai Lama. The latter had occasion
to meet Sri Sitaramdas and was impressed by his
deep spirituality and genuine global sympathies.
The four mystic incidents in the life of Sri Sitaramdas
recorded in this book are: (i) his naming as
Prabodh, (ii) a vision of Shiva at the age of six, (iii) a
second vision of Shiva and an esoteric experience of
the phenomenon of Creation originating from the
primordial sound Om, and (iv) his merger in mahakasha,
cosmic space, with the vision of his Chosen
Deity.
The author interprets these mystic experiences
and related utterances of his master in the light of the
Upanishads, Kashmir Shaivism, and modern scientific
thought. Many ideas from the Tantras and yoga
are also woven into the text. The theory of Creation
proceeding from sphota, Logos, is elaborated upon,
reiterating the Upanishadic stand that this world is
a projection of God. The master’s intense spiritual
practices and his disregard for bodily comforts evoke
awe. His willingly stretching his legs to feed hungry
mosquitoes is an eye-opener and speaks of his selfsacrificing
nature.
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is one of India’s major
cultural institutions and has been publishing important
works representing the Indian spirit and culture.
However, the present book could do with careful editing
and systematic presentation of ideas. A brief life
Prabuddha Bharata
sketch of Sri Sitaramdas would also have been welcomed
by readers. The details in the book are sketchy
and the frequent use of Sanskrit and Bengali terms
hampers readability. A glossary of such terms would
have helped. Hopefully these issues will be addressed
by the author and publishers in the next edition.
Swami Atmajnananda
Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata
Śiva Sūtras:
The Supreme Awakening
Swami Lakshmanjoo
Munshiram Manoharlal, Post Box 5715,
54 Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi 110 055.
Website: www.mrmlbooks.com. 2007.
xxviii + 322 pp. Rs 400.
Coming from the line of the masters of Kashmir
Shaivism, Swami Lakshmanjoo brings out the
wisdom of his spiritual experiences in this translation
of the commentary on Shiva Sutra, called ‘Shiva
Sutra Vimarshini’ by Kshemaraja. The Shiva Sutra
comprises aphorisms on the knowledge of Godconsciousness
as revealed by Bhagavan Shiva to his
devotee Vasugupta. The result of recordings of the
swami’s lectures, transcribed and edited by John
Hughes and aptly subtitled ‘The Supreme Awakening’,
this masterly commentary will guide spiritual seekers
in unravelling and awakening the Consciousness
inherent in them. The volume contains the original
Sanskrit texts of the Shiva Sutra and ‘Siva Sutra Vimarshini’
as appendices, and is an essential read for
students of Kashmir Shaivism.
PB
BOOK RECEIVED
Truth and Cosmic Rhythm
in the Vedas vis-à-vis
Physical Sciences of Today
Dinendra Marik
Hem-Tara Foundation, 17 Broad Street,
Kolkata 700 019. 2006. 58 pp. Rs 35.
Sri Anirvan is one of the few original
modern interpreters of the
Vedas. His works Veda Mimamsa and Rig Veda Samhita:
Gayatri Mandala have received high critical
acclaim. This small book is an exposition of some of
Sri Anirvan’s thoughts in the light of the concepts
and findings of modern physics.
PB April 2009

REPORTS
New Vice President
and Treasurer
Swami Prameyananda and Swami Girishananda
have been elected vice president and treasurer of
the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
respectively. They assumed their offices on the holy
occasion of Sri Ramakrishna’s birthday, 27 February
2009.
News from Branch Centres
Sri Ramakrishna Vijayam, the monthly organ of
the Ramakrishna Order in Tamil, published from
Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, held a drawing
competition for school and college students from
12 to 26 January to mark the National Youth Day.
The winners were awarded cash prizes at a public
function held at Vivekananda Illam on 12 January.
About 20,300 participants focused their hearts and
minds in attempting to bring out the best features
of Swami Vivekananda. Besides Tamilnadu, youth
from Kerala, Nagaland, Sri Lanka, and some other
countries participated in the competition.
Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Morabadi,
Ranchi, celebrated the National Youth Day on 12
January with a procession and a meeting. On 26
Janu ary Srimat Swami Smarananandaji Maharaj,
PB April 2009
Painting exhibition on Swami Vivekananda at Vivekananda Illam
Vice President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna
Mission, inaugurated a laboratory building
and a seed processing plant at the Divyayan
department of the centre.
Ramakrishna Mission TB Sanatorium,
Ranchi, also celebrated the National Youth Day
with a procession and meeting. On 31 January
Swami Smarana nandaji Maharaj inaugurated an
extension of an indoor ward of the hospital and
two renovated buildings for the outdoor section.
Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narainpur,
organized a two-day Kisan Mela, farmers’ fair, on
23 and 24 January. About 8,000 farmers from more
than 60 villages participated in the mela inaugurated
by Sri Kedar Kashyap, Minister, Tribal Welfare
Department, Chhattisgarh.
On 29 January Srimat Swami Atmasthanandaji
Maharaj, President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna
Mission, inaugurated a new building at
Ramakrishna Mission Shilpamandira, Belur, for
housing workshops, labs, classrooms, a library, and
a drawing hall.
Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Allahabad,
organized a medical camp, discourses, and an exhibition
on Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji at Triveni
Sangam on the occasion of Magh Mela from 9
Janu ary to 9 February. About 17,000 patients were
treated at the medical camp and nearly 90,000
people witnessed the exhibition.
Ramakrishna Mission, Viveknagar, organized
an All Tripura Devotees’ Conference on 8 February.
It was attended by 428 devotees.
Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj consecrated
the newly built Sri Ramakrishna Temple, with a
marble image of Sri Ramakrishna, at Ramakrishna
Math, Barisha, on 9 February, the sacred birthday
305

of Swami Adbhutananda. Swami Smarananandaji,
Swami Prameya nandaji Maharaj, and Swami Prabhanandaji,
General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math
and Ramakrishna Mission, addressed the public
meetings organized on this occasion. In all, about
450 monastics and more than 16,000 devotees attended
the function.
A newly built two-storey wing of the school at
Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Ramharipur,
was inaugurated on 9 February.
Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Chandigarh,
conducted a child dental-care and an eye-care programme
for children of a backward area of the city.
In the former 1,150 children were examined and
treated; in the latter 2,247 children of two schools
were checked up—291 of them having refractive
errors were given free glasses, and 33 with serious
visual problems were treated by an eye specialist.
The centre conducted another child dental care
project in which 371 children of a school in Pinjore,
Haryana, were examined and treated.
Relief
New temple at Barisha
Flood relief
in Fiji
Flood Relief · Prolonged torrential rains in the
month of January caused one of the worst floods in
decades in the western parts of Viti Levu, the largest
island in the Republic of Fiji. Towns and villages
were submerged for days and thousands of people
huddled in
emergency
s h e l t e r s .
Nadi centre
immedi
ately started relief services to flood victims by
treating 165 patients, serving 750 plates of cooked
food, and distributing 740 kg potatoes, 1,200
packets of biscuits, 550 kg dal, 2,100 kg rice, 96
packets of milk powder, 1,080 l of milk, 100 packets
of salt, 250 packets of tea, 500 bottles of mineral
water, and other items to more than 1,000 families in
Ba, Lautoka, and Nadi cities. The relief work is continuing.
On February the following centres in India
conducted post-flood relief work: Katihar centre
distributed 2,500 blankets, 1,671 shawls, and 309
mufflers to flood-affected families in Bihar. Patna
centre distributed 8,250 blankets, 1,000 shawls,
1,000 woollen jackets, and 24,750 garments to 4,125
flood-affected families of 25 villages in Madhepura,
Saharsa, and Supaul districts. Puri Math distributed
200 saris to flood victims of 3 villages in Orissa.
Winter Relief · 18,039 blankets were distributed
to needy people in the respective areas of the following
centres: Aalo: 1,200; Antpur: 500; Asansol: 707;
Bankura: 201; Baranagar Mission: 500; Belgharia:
770; Bhubaneswar: 500; Contai: 300; Cooch Behar:
300; Garbeta: 100; Ghatshila: 123; Guwahati: 250;
Ichapur: 1,100; Jayrambati: 1,100; Kamarpukur: 1,700;
Kanpur: 347; Koalpara (Jayrambati): 1,852; Limbdi:
117; Muzaffarpur: 55; Puri Math: 1,000; Ramharipur:
1,500; Ranchi Morabadi: 500; Ranchi Sanatorium:
1,002; Sikra Kulingram: 1,115; Swamiji’s House (Kolkata):
500; Taki: 700. Besides, the following centres
distributed various winter garments to needy persons:
Belgharia: 199 sweaters; Garbeta: 125 sweaters;
Ichapur: 350 shawls; Kanpur: 179 sweaters.
Distress Relief · The following centres distributed
various items to needy people in their respective
areas: Agartala: 400 saris, 110 dhotis, and 100 children’s
garments; Belgaum: 375 kg rice, 375 kg flour,
75 kg edible oil, and 75 kg dal; Belgharia: 1,422 saris,
1,536 dhotis, 857 pants, 822 shirts, and 1,673 children’s
garments in 8 villages of G Plot Panchayat,
South 24 Parganas district; Bhubaneswar: 3,965 kg
rice, 793 kg dal, 396 l refined oil, 397 kg salt, and 54
kg of milk powder in 9 districts of Orissa; Chandigarh:
180 kg rice, 180 kg flour, 36 kg dal, 18 kg oil, 36
kg salt, and 36 kg sugar; Ichapur: 2,100 saris and 20
dhotis; Kanpur: 50 bed sheets, 60 steel plates, and
60 steel glasses; Muzaffarpur: 60 saris and 55 dhotis;
Porbandar: 2,756 kg rice, 1,250 kg dal, 610 kg
sugar, 610 kg oil, 76 kg tea powder, and 300 packets
of biscuits in 3 villages of Jamnagar and Porbandar
districts; Sikra Kulingram: 200 saris, 100 dhotis,
and 100 lungis; Taki: 500 saris and 50 dhotis. P
PB April 2009